Digimon Frontier: The New Warriors
by Digi-BlueFox
Summary: A family from another dimension, with knowledge of digimon, mysteriously arrive in the Digimon Frontier universe. After a call, a girl from that family joins the Warriors on their journey. 12 Legendary Warriors? Which one does she carry? How will her presence effect the story as we know it? And how will it effect her and her family's lives? (Rewritten)
1. All Aboard

Hi guys~! Welcome to Digimon Frontier: The New Warriors rewritten.

I know it's been a couple years since my last real update, soo... Surprise~ Not dead~ But you know how it goes. You get into new things, want to write things about that and eventually forget one or the other story... hehe...

But yeah! Let's just get right into this! Hope you enjoy~

Edit 31 Dec. 2018: I've changed Sophia's last name from Nedena to Daneven (Daa-neh-vuhn). I thought I was being clever with her first one, it being a backwards version of a Dutch surname that's in my family. But it has long lost its charm, not to mention I don't even know for to pronounce it anymore. So yeah...

 **Disclaimer: I didn't own it 5 years ago, doubt anything changed since then. I do own my own characters.**

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Sophia was sitting behind her computer in her room reading digimon fanfics, minding her own business. Her long brown hair held together in a high ponytail as her teal eyes scanned the words on her screen. She was wearing a short sleeved red shirt with dark blue jacket and lighter blue jeans. Then all of a sudden the screen began to act weird. It began flashing white and sparks started to come jumping out of the screen.

"What's happening!?" Sophia asked herself.

The screen suddenly flashed in a blinding bright light, so bright Sophia had to cover her eyes to not get blind. She felt a weird sensation, like everything around her was changing. Opening her eyes again to see what happened, she noticed everything still looking the same, but at the same time different. Looking outside of the window, she noticed a different scenery then before all the weird stuff happened.

"What the heck just happened?" Sophia asked herself now slightly scared. "What the?!" Suddenly she saw someone really familiar passing her house. "Takuya?! No way!"

All of a sudden her phone beeped and flashed. _"Sophia Daneven, your destiny is calling. Are you willing to accept?"_

'Omg…Ophanimon? Ophanimon is calling me?! AWESOME!' Without a doubt she pressed 'Yes' and waited for the next message.

" _Very good, now take the 5:45 Shibuya bound train from Jiyuugaoka Station."_

Looking at her alarm she saw it was 5:40. "Okay, not much time!" She ran out, saying goodbye to her dad and followed Takuya's tracks.

When she arrived at the station she realized she didn't have any money.

'Damn! Just perfect! My dream of going to the digital world finally comes true, and I don't even have the money to buy a ticket to get there!'

Out of frustration she hit the machine with her fist. The machine started making strange noises, catching Sophia's attention. A ticket came out, leaving the brunette slightly confused, before remembering Takuya's case.

'Oh, right. Takuya didn't have money either, but got a ticket by bumping his head into the machine…'

Quickly she grabbed the ticket and ran to the train before it would leave. Once in the train the first person she noticed was Koichi, her favorite character from the frontier series. Trying to keep calm she walked over to him.

"Hello. Did you come because of that 'Decide your future' game too?" She asked the bluenett boy.

Koichi looked up at her surprised, not knowing what she meant. "Huh?"

Sophia shrugged. "Well, it seems like a lot of kids here are here because of that game, I was wondering if you got that too."

"I don't know… I left my phone at home." Koichi said, looking away from Sophia to glance behind him.

"Oh, well. Maybe we can both use my phone if another message comes? I mean, if you'd like to come."

"Umm…" Glancing behind him again, he nodded. "Sure, why not? My name is Koichi Kimura. What's your name?"

"I'm Sophia Daneven. Nice to meet you Koichi."

"AAAHH COME ON GIVE ME A BREAK I'M DOING TO BEST I CAN!" someone near them screamed, interrupting the little conversation the two had.

Sophia glanced at the boy, very well known as Takuya, holding his head in his hands. She giggled softly at the sight. Then, remembering why he was freaking out, she pulled out her cell phone and opened the new message.

' _Transfer to the 6 o'clock subway from Shibuya Station.'_

Sophia looked at Koichi to see if he'd already read it, but noticed him looking at Koji.

"Koichi?" No reaction. "Umm…Koichi?" A little louder this time, but still nothing. Sick of being ignored and having no patience, she began poking him. "Hey! Earth to Koichi!" she exclaimed annoyed, but not loud enough for Koji or Takuya to pay attention to them.

"Huh?" Koichi, finally snapping out of his trance, looked at the brunette girl confused. "Oh, sorry. Did you say something?"

"Yeah, I called your name a couple of times. But you were too busy…." She glanced the way he looked before. "Too busy looking at that kid…who looks a lot like you…." She gave Koichi a questioning look.

Koichi looked away from her gaze. "Long story, you wouldn't understand."

Sophia was about to say something to that, before remembering the message she got. Just before the doors opened she showed it to him. He nodded and together they went to the train door. At the door Koichi hesitated to go out, but Sophia pulled him by his arm towards the elevator. When they arrived there Koji wasn't there yet, meaning they had enough time to get inside.

'I can prevent Koichi from dying!' Sophia thought happily.

The moment they were inside Koji came in. Sophia noticed Takuya running up to them and tried to keep the elevator from closing by pushing the doors further apart. The doors slit open again the moment she gave a light push and Takuya came running in, slamming into the wall because he ran too hard. He sank to the ground rubbing his face.

"Are you okay?" Koichi asked as Sophia tried to hold her laughter.

"Yeah I'm fine." he groaned. He stood up looked around at the 3 others. "Hey did you guys get the message too?"

"I did." Sophia answered. "But I don't know about mister grumpy there." She said pointing at Koji, who seemed unaffected by her insult.

Remembering the elevator was gonna be a bumpy ride Sophia took hold of the railing and waited for the impact.

"Man I really gotta stop landing on my head." Takuya said.

Sophia giggled softly. 'Yeah good luck with that Taky.'

They looked around then Sophia heard Takuya mutter. "So weird, were all these kids called here the same way I was."

'Not likely. Some cases were _very_ different.' She thought annoyed.

Her phone received a message again. Pulling it out, she showed it to Koichi.

" _It's up to you now, which one will you choose?"_

Koji ran off immediately, leaving Sophia and Koichi looking at the direction he went to, before he disappeared out of sight.

"Hey, Koichi? You okay?"

He snapped out of his thoughts again, third time that day. "Y-yeah, I'm fine. Let's go." He said as he went to the closest train.

Sophia followed him and just stepped inside when the doors slammed shut, making her stumble into Koichi's arms. They stood there for a minute before pulling away and blushing like crazy. Takuya took that moment to step inside.

"Oh, hey. It's you guys again." He said. "At least that means this isn't a ghost train." He said, awkwardly laughing and rubbing the back of his head.

"…Ok… I only know you for about a minute, but I already know that you watch way too many movies." Sophia said.

"Yeah." Koichi agreed. "There's no such thing as ghosts."

Together they went to the next cabin where they met 3 other kids. Zoe and JP looked at the trio that just walked in.

"You're here because of the phone thing?" Takuya asked.

Zoe nodded while JP ignored him, just looking the opposite direction of him.

Zoe turned to the others. "With them here there's 6 of us. I wonder if that means something special."

"Something special?" Takuya asked himself. "What?"

"Yeah maybe." Sophia said, knowing that's true.

"Why did you guys get on this train?" Takuya asked the others, walking towards them and turning to JP. "I mean was it the message?"

"Hey kid this is the closest train to the elevator, okay?" JP said, sounding annoyed. "Now look, just leave me alone."

"Geez sorry." Takuya said sarcastic.

Sophia walked over to JP, glaring down at him. "Don't be so rude. He was just asking."

He looked at her, not even flinching at the failing glare. "Sorry, I'm just nervous."

Takuya turned to Zoe, also asking if there's a particular reason she chose the train. Zoe just giggled, giving the same answer as JP. Then turning to Sophia and Koichi.

"Also the same reason as them?" he asked.

Koichi nodded while Sophia shook her head. "Honestly, I don't know why I choose this train." She said. "Just a feeling I guess."

JP, who'd been watching Zoe for a while, began to grin widely. "Watch this." He whispered to Takuya. "Hey honey, you want some chocolate?" he asked Zoe. He stood up, pushed Takuya out of the way, simply saying 'Move' and turned all his attention back to the blonde girl. "So, my name's JP what's yours?"

"I'm Zoe, it's nice to meet you." She said smiling at him. Then turning to Koichi and Sophia. "And who are you?"

"I'm Sophia." She simply said.

"My name is Koichi. Nice to meet you all." Koichi said politely.

"And I'm- I'm Takuya hi there." Takuya said.

"I'm …" All teens looked at the one who said that. The little boy in the back. "I'm Tommy, but I didn't wanna get on this train." He said crying.

"What do you say?" Takuya asked, not understanding what Tommy meant.

"-sniff-sniff- I –sniff- Two kids, bullies and they…-sniff- pushed me on the train and shut the door." Tommy said, sounding like he was crying. "Why are kids always picking on me?" Tommy asked in tears.

Sophia felt sad for him and sat down next to him. She laid her arm around his shoulder and pulled him close. "Hey, don't cry. It's okay, Tommy." She said trying to calm the crying boy down. "I know how you feel, I was bullied a lot too. When we find them again, I'll make sure they stop, okay?"

Tommy looked up at her. "You'll really do that?" Sophia nodded. "Thanks."

Suddenly all the lights in the train dimmed till it was pitch black inside and outside. The ride became rather bumpy, causing everyone to fall backwards. Sophia opened her eyes just in time to see everyone change into their Spirit forms, even herself. She noticed Koichi changed into Lowemon, that was a relief to her. Everyone's phone suddenly lit up and partly dissolved, changing into their D-Tectors, Sophia's being a violet colored with teal grip.

"What's going on?" Takuya asked.

" _Welcome to the digital world, Takuya/Zoe/JP/Tommy/Koichi/Sophia. This is your D-Tector."_ The voice of Ophanimon said through the D-Tectors.

"The digital world? You're kidding!" Takuya said, possibly to the new device. "What have I gotten myself into?" He sounded stressed. Then again, who wouldn't be when you start a, seemingly normal, game and end up in a whole different world? "Did you guys get that message?" Takuya later asked the group.

No one answered, too busy examining their new devices that used to be their phones, except for in Koichi's case. His D-Tector materialized out of thin air.

' _I'm guessing yes.'_ Sophia heard.

Surprised she looked around, trying to figure out where that came from. Her eyes later falling on Takuya. 'It…couldn't have been him, right?' Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud yell, the Trailmon. 'Oh right, I forgot this was a Trailmon…AND A REALLY LOUD ONE!'

When the yelling stopped the 6 looked outside and saw the flock of Poyomon.

"Are those ghosts?" Zoe asked.

Shooting one glance at Takuya, Sophia noticed him looking back and forth between Koichi and her with a look on his face that clearly said 'See! Ghosts _are_ real!'.

"They look like it." Tommy said.

"Or marshmallows. They go great with chocolate." JP said.

"Um…JP? I don't think marshmallows fly or have faces." Sophia told him. "Besides…" she walked over to another window, waving happily at one of the Poyomon. "They are too cute to be ghosts."

"There's that point." Koichi began. "And there's also the point that ghosts aren't real. They're only real in movies and stories."

One of the Poyomon came closer, looking at Zoe. It pressed its face closer to the window, making it look scary enough for Zoe to scream about, scaring all the baby digimon away.

"They're probably ghosts of kids that came here before." Takuya began flipping out again over nothing. "Ooohh! What _have_ I gotten myself into? And what if there's no way of getting back out?"

"Jeez… Calm down Takuya. We're all in this together." Zoe said. Not really reassuring, but okay.

When the Trailmon finally arrived at the Train station and the doors opened, there was a group of Pagumon waiting for them. Without hesitation Sophia stepped out as if not even seeing the Pagumon.

She turned back to the others. "Aren't you coming?" They just looked at her like she was crazy, which she probably is. "Oh, come on. These little things aren't so bad, are they?"

They didn't even have time to respond to the brunette, because the next thing they knew, they were blown of the train and onto the ground. Falling right in the middle of the Pagumon group.

"Yeah that first step's a doozy." Trailmon said, laughing afterwards.

"Is it me or did the train just talk?" Takuya asked no one specific.

"It's not just you, I heard it too." Koichi said.

"Hey, I'm not just any old train. I'm Trailmon and I'm alive just like you. Although I am more handsome than you scrunched up little punks, thank you very much." Trailmon told the group. "Anyhow this is Flame Terminal, you're in the heart of a digimon village."

"Digimon village?" Takuya asked confused.

Then the Pagumon came again, talking about how their pals and their last friends didn't last very long, scaring the gang.

"I have enough friends." JP told them somewhat scared.

Then Tommy began to cry again. "I didn't even wanna be on this train." he said through tears and sobbing.

"Sorry you feel bad kiddo, but I can't stick around. If you wanna go home you have to find a Spirit or something." Trailmon told the gang.

No one had much time to ask him questions, because immediately after he said that he drove back the way he came from.

"That kid should get a job as a fire alarm." JP said, earning a fist on the head by Sophia. "Ow! What was that for?!"

"For insulting a little boy who's just scared."

"What's a Spirit and where do we get one?" Zoe asked the ditching Trailmon. When he didn't answer she screamed after him. "Hello!"

"Where are you going? Give us an answer. HEY!" JP called after him.

"Hey yourself, I got a schedule to keep."

"So… Guess that's it. We're all alone." Takuya nicely pointed out the obvious.

"Wait! Come back here!" JP exclaimed, standing up.

"Yeah pretty please." Zoe added to make it sound nicer, also standing up. But to no avail. Trailmon kept moving further and further away from them.

And, once again, Tommy started crying and cried: "TAKE ME HOME!" Soon after, chasing the Trailmon.

"Tommy, stop!" Takuya yelled as he chased after Tommy, followed by Sophia. Tommy ran up the tracks, getting Takuya to stop, but not the girl. "Tommy!" Takuya called after him once more from safe grounds.

"Go away!" Tommy cried back at him.

But none of the two would have any of that. Sophia grabbed him by his arm, finally making him stop.

"This isn't helping! You're gonna fall!" Takuya told him.

"I know you wanna go home, but falling off the rails won't get you anywhere."

"At least I won't be here anymore."

"Don't think like that!" Sophia exclaimed a little shocked.

"I'll take you home!" Takuya told him. "Uh, that's right! Trailmon said that if we find the Spirits we can go home, right?"

"Right…" Tommy calmed down a little. "Okay, I'm coming back." He turned around, almost falling if Sophia hadn't held his arm.

Takuya was about to come, but a fire in a nearby village made him stop. The trio looked at what was going on and saw 2 creatures running away, slamming into Takuya, making him fall on the ground. Once Bokomon and Neemon were done having their little argument they turned back to the blazing village. Out of the green flames another digimon, known as Ceberumon, appeared.

"Where is the Ancient Spirit?" he asked with his growling, hoarse voice. "I can sense the Spirit's presence all over this town. I must destroy it!"

"No way it's mine!" Takuya shouted to the black dog-like digimon.

"Then you shall be destroyed with it!" he exclaimed before preparing his attack. **"EMERALD BLAZE"**

The next thing Takuya knew, he was surrounded by green flames that came out of Cerberumon's mouth.

"What? Are you crazy?" Bokomon asked, slapping the boy on his head. "Run already!"

"Yeah! But where am I supposed to go?!" The flames surrounded Takuya, only leaving choice between running to the enemy, or backing off from it.

A third flaming blast came straight for Takuya, leaving him to run through the fire leading to the Trailmon tracks and up to Tommy and Sophia. The area that was hit by the attack turned into data and was scanned by Cerberumon. Now that the rails had nothing to be attached to, they drooped, causing the 3 humans and 2 digimon who were on it to fall down to the one part Cerberumon didn't scan. All of a sudden Takuya's D-Tector was activated and floated slightly off the ground, pointing itself into one specific direction.

"Hey, my D-Tector." Takuya said, noticing its acting on its own. It shot a beam of light at a huge flame right in front of them. "No way."

The flame kinda…well, exploded! It exploded and changed into a weird beam of data.

"It's the Spirit." Bokomon said as the Spirit showed itself, appearing out of nowhere. "The Spirit of Flame."

"Geez, never would've guessed. It only came out of a **flame**." Sophia said sarcastically.

"A Spirit? That wasn't so hard. Time to go home." Takuya said determined to get it to get Tommy home. "But how am I supposed to get it? And what do I do with it when I do?"

"No need to worry about that, for it will soon be destroyed." As Cerberumon said that, he charged at the 5 on the ground, the green fire coming out of his mouth now and then.

Takuya moved his eyes from the scary digimon, to Tommy, who was clutching the older boy's shirt in fear, then back at Cerberumon with brave and determined expression showing on his face.

"Take Tommy, will ya Sophia?" he shoved Tommy into her arms, his eyes not leaving Cerberumon. "I'll take care of Cerberumon."

He grabbed a nearby pole from the ground and waited till Cerberumon was close. Then he held it in front of him, causing Cerberumon to bite in it, and losing his grip on the pole. Out of pure stupidity he grabbed the digimon by his tail and got pulled into the data stream. Just when Cerberumon was about to destroy the Spirit once and for all, he somehow caught fire and was forced to jump out, unable to finish the job.

Looking back at the stream, Tommy began to get worried. "But what about Takuya?"

Standing up, Takuya didn't even seem to notice the heat. He also seemed surprised that he didn't catch fire. "Huh? I'm fine." He said. He looked at the Spirit right in front of him, entering a trance and mumbling: "Ancient Spirit…" Soon after he yelled: "SPIRIIIIIIIIIT" causing his D-Tector to fly towards him.

Catching it, he pointed the device at the Spirit, still screaming, and it disappeared into his D-Tector.

" _It is time."_ Ophanimon's voice told Takuya, who growled in response.

" **EXECUTE SPIRIT EVOLUTION… AGUNIMON"**

Even as Agunimon he kept on growling!

"What did he turn into?" Tommy asked, staring at Agunimon.

"Well, let me see…" Bokomon grabbed his book from…somewhere in his pink waist band and leafed through the papers.

"I'm just guessing… He turned into Agunimon." Sophia said, rolling her eyes. "Come on, he just yelled out his own name!"

Bokomon didn't even seem to listen to her as he looked through the book. From the platform above them, Zoe, JP and Koichi were staring in awe of what had become of the goggle head.

"No way…"

"Every way…"

"I wouldn't have believed this if I didn't see it with my own eyes…"

When Agunimon was finally done showing off his flaming body, Bokomon found the right page. The only thing he could find about him was his name 'Agunimon' and even sounded surprised.

"No matter who you are, you'll lose!" Cerberumon jumped up, attacking again. **"EMERALD BLAZE"**

But Agunimon was quick to dodge, grabbing the 4 still on the lower part. He jumped, dodging the next wave of flames just in the nick of time, made a front-flip, placed the ones in his arms on the ground and left to battle the evil digimon, showing off with a backflip.

"Molto cool." Zoe said.

" **PORTALS OF DARKNESS"** Cerberumon yelled, making lots of holes in the ground appear.

Agunimon jumped twice, a portal appearing everywhere he stood. Third time he wasn't so lucky, he jumped right into a portal. He tried to hold on to the edge, but Cerberumon scratched his hand, forcing him to let go and fall into the darkness. Cerberumon was quick to follow him down the hole.

"Now we'll see how you fare on my turf; darkness!"

That was the last thing the rest of the gang heard before they watched the portals close. They waited in tension for Takuya, or actually Agunimon, to reappear. Everyone cheering silently for the goggle head to win. Then finally!

" **PYRO TORNADO"**

That shout was heard. A huge flaming tornado appeared out of the area Agunimon disappeared into. Everyone on the sideline stared at it in awe.

"I have to admit it, I'm impressed." Bokomon said…probably thought out loud.

"But what if he's in trouble?" Zoe asked worriedly.

When the tornado dissolved Agunimon kicked Cerberumon in his stomach and caused a huge explosion.

"That's amazing." Tommy said, admiring his hero.

"He's beautiful." Zoe exclaimed happily.

"That was awesome!" Sophia exclaimed, trying to hold her excitement of seeing it for real.

"Nice work, Takuya." Koichi called out to him.

Cerberumon's Fractal Code appeared, circling around him. "Now to take the Fractal Code." Agunimon said. He grabbed the black and red D-Tector, pressed the button on the side and swiped it over the Fractal Code. All the data entered the D-Tector, leaving a small egg that used to be the mutt-digimon.

"Hey, look at the pretty, little light." Neemon

"You nincompoop! That 'pretty, little light' is Cerberumon's essence, so it looks like we're not done with him." Neemon peeked over Bokomon's shoulder. The white digimon noticed and closed the book. "Buzz off! _You_ said you didn't want to carry the book."

Tommy's eyes never left Agunimon. He was watching him from the edge and saw him turn back into Takuya, who fell to the ground panting. The gang took the closest thing to a normal way down and ran towards Takuya, still able to hear his conversation with the D-Tector.

"Wha- what happened? How did I know how to do all that stuff?" Takuya asked the D-Tector.

" _You are a digidestined."_ The voice spoke.

"Digi- what now?"

" _Digidestined. Chosen for great things. But, don't be frightened. The one who chose you…is you."_

"I chose myself?" Takuya asked, though it sounded more like a statement. "I guess that means we're not going home."

Sophia stared off in the distance, just barely noticing the Trailmon coming their way. 'Yeah… I guess… I'll be stuck here for quite a while…'


	2. Lobomon Warrior of Light

Have fun with the second chapter~ Hope you enjoy

 **Disclaimer: Didn't own it 2 minutes ago, still don't. I only own Sophia, her Spirits and any other character that's not on the Wiki page. (I think)**

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Takuya was staring in front of him seemingly confused. Then again, what do you expect from someone who just turned into a digimon? The others were standing in front of him, waiting for him to snap out of his daze.

Finally he snapped out of it. "What just happened to me?" he asked, looking up those in front of him.

Zoe took a step forward. "You mean before or after you turned into a digimon?" she asked.

"Me? A digimon?" Takuya asked, obviously confused and barely remembering the experience.

"Yes." Bokomon said walking passed him for no reason at all. "Through the process of digivolution."

"Digi-what?" he asked Bokomon, but checked his D-Tector before anyone could reply. "It had to be something I pressed." He pressed a random button. Nothing happened, so he pressed more buttons in random order. "Come on! Digivolution start! Operation turn me into a digimon, execute!" When Takuya pressed that last button a data stream emitted from his D-Tector.

" _Fractal Code Render."_

"Oh boy, I think I broke it." Takuya muttered loudly as he watched the Fractal Code fly away.

"I knew it! It's the Fractal Code." Bokomon exclaimed.

"Really?" Sophia asked the white digimon. "What gave you that idea? The voice that said 'Fractal Code render'?"

Still watching the Fractal Code, everyone saw it turn into a forest. That forest was connected to the Flame Terminal.

"There's no way this is happening." JP said in either confusion or awe, probably a bit of both.

Sophia crossed her arms. "Obviously there is."

"Whoa..." Takuya stepped a little closer to the group, not taking his eyes off the forest. "Did I do all that?" he asked.

Suddenly Bokomon and Neemon began running towards it, together with a bunch of other digimon.

"It's the dawn of regeneration!" Bokomon exclaimed happily.

"No more living in a train station." Neemon added also happy. "Trailmon will never do 'woo woo' in my ear again."

While Bokomon and Neemon introduced themselves, a movement in the corner of Sophia's eyes caught her attention. It was Koichi, turning his gaze everywhere around him as if to find someon- Oh right. Koichi was looking everywhere to find a glimpse of his brother. Meanwhile Bokomon was giving the others a history lesson.

Sophia rolled her eyes, having heard this story 4 times before. 'I think I can skip this.'

Instead she looked around her, at the digimon running around her. There were Pagumon and Poyomon...that was all? No Biyomon or Elecmon, or maybe even Gazimon? Bummer. She snapped back to reality when she noticed JP and Tommy leaving.

"They really should stay with the group." Koichi muttered, startling the brunette. Koichi noticed this. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

"It's okay." Sophia said with a smile. Looking back at the duo walking away, she said: "Maybe we should follow them."

Koichi nodded and followed JP and Tommy, quickly followed by Sophia. The walk was quiet, mostly because they hardly knew each other and didn't know what to say. It wasn't long before they lost the duo they were following and ended up at the Trailmon station. They arrived just in time to see Koji walk away from the Trailmon and towards them. Koichi's eyes widened, seeing his twin ended up in this world as well. Koji spotted the duo and stopped, confusion written over his face, though quickly hidden by his usual scowl.

After a minute of staring the silence was finally broken by Sophia. "Well this is awkward... Are we just gonna keep staring or what?" she asked.

Koji rolled his eyes and turned away. "Whatever."

"Wait." Sophia stopped him. "It might not be a good idea to go somewhere alone. There are weird creatures around here, they could be dangerous."

"So? What do you want me to do about it?" Koji asked, not turning around or caring.

"It might be better to go in a group." Sophia said. "Mind if we join you?"

Koji turned around with a glare. "I don't even know who you are. Besides I can handle myself just fine."

Sophia shook her head. "Not against these creatures." she said. "My name's Sophia, and this is Koichi." she made a gesture to the boy next to her. "What's your name?"

"If you must know, I'm Koji." Koji said, not having stopped glaring yet. "You talk too much, you know that?"

Sophia gave a sheepishly smile, nodding. But Koji didn't see it, having turned around already.

"Know what? Do what you want. I don't care." he said walking away.

The duo was soon to follow him. Koichi had been silent for a long while now. He just kept staring at Koji, thinking of ways to tell him the truth. He was snapped out of his thought by someone poking him on the shoulder. It was Sophia, staring at him with concern in her eyes. Koichi simply smiled and mouthed 'I'm fine.', earning a smile back. They followed Koji around for a while till he stopped in the forest. Apparently the map had stopped showing him the way and he didn't know where to go now. The three looked around when something caught Sophia's eye.

"Hey look." she said, pointing to something between the trees. "There's a hole in the wall."

"I saw that already." Koji snapped, walking towards it. He went down the staircase into the darkness. "Hello anyone here?" he asked loudly. But not a single sound was heard except the footsteps of the group. "I suppose not." he muttered to himself.

He grabbed the D-Tector again, possibly waiting for the map to return, but it didn't appear, leaving him frustrated. After a while they reached the bottom of the stairs and looked around. There were several holes in the wall.

"Which one do you think we should take?" Koichi asked.

None answered him. Koji just headed towards one of them, leaving the duo in the dark.

Sophia frowned in thought. "We probably shouldn't try following him again." she said. "He looks kinda irritated."

Koichi nodded sadly. The brunette girl grabbed her own D-Tector using it for some light. She went to one of the many holes and waved Koichi over.

"So what's the deal with you and Koji?" she suddenly asked after walking down the tunnel for a while.

Koichi stiffened. "Y-you noticed?"

Sophia answered with a giggle. "You were staring at him like he's gonna disappear when you do as much as blink. It was kinda hard to miss."

Now it was Koichi's turn to let out a chuckle. "Was I that bad?" Sophia nodded. "Well...Thing is... He's my twin brother." He paused, but Sophia gestured for him to go on. "We were separated at such young age, none of us could remember the other. My grandmother told me about him on her deathbed and I've been trying to find him ever since."

"I see..." Sophia said, not really knowing what to say next.

The duo walked the rest of the way in silence. It was kinda awkward. They reached the end of the tunnel and looked around. There was a big space with several more holes, even some higher up. Luckily for them they ended up at one of the ground leveled holes. Then a scream- no 2 screams came from one tunnel. Looking at it, JP and Tommy emerged from it, chased by a group of hungry Pagumon.

'Oh man! I can't believe I forgot that!' Sophia though to herself, mentally facepalming herself.

As they were being bitten by the Pagumon, a figure jumped from one of the holes on a higher...floor? I guess...? It was Koji. He'd taken down a huge stick in the process of falling. The Pagumon had temporarily stopped trying to eat the 2 human to look at their new arrival. Koji just looked at them with a grin of his face. Finally unfreezing, the small digimon decided to attack him instead of JP and Tommy. Everyone watched as Koji broke off a long piece of the stick by kicking it, and used it to fight the Pagumon. Unfortunately they were a little too small and fast to actually get hit. One of the Pagumon came straight for his head, which Koji didn't notice until last second. Luckily for him 2 rocks knocked it out of the way. Looking where those rocks came from, Koji saw Koichi and Sophia, still with outstretched arms.

Sophia smirked. "All yours, Pretty boy."

Choosing to ignore the 'Pretty Boy' comment, Koji began to fight the Pagumon again. All went well. He even managed to trick them in covering him, only to be whacked by the stick and slammed into the wall. One of them, one that was thrown into the air, came falling down right in front of Koji. Thinking he'd won, he stroke a pose, smirking down at the little digimon. But he thought wrong. Out of nowhere, the Pagumon was covered in a Fractal Code and changed. The blob on the ground moved and grew to at least 3 times the size it was as a Pagumon.

'Raremon...' Sophia thought, looking at the huge blob of a digimon. 'We're gonna have to watch out for his stench and his... What was it called again?'

" **ACID SLUDGE"** Raremon shouted out, as he spit a huge ball of green goop towards Tommy and JP.

'Oh yeah...that.'

JP had managed to run away before the attack, but Tommy tripped and fell just as Raremon attacked. Lucky for him Koji was there to get him out of the way just in time. Looking back from their spot on the ground, Koji and Tommy saw the holes that attack created. They didn't have much time to admire it though. The next thing they knew, Raremon used his **acid sludge** again. As Koji ran away with the 8-year-old in his arms, which couldn't have been easy, the rest of the gang finally appeared. Koichi and Sophia ran over to them, seeing the tunnel they came out of wasn't far away from theirs.

They were just in time to hear Takuya tell his Spirit to wake up. "Come on! I'm not kidding here." he said, pressing a few buttons.

He let out a frustrated groan when none of the buttons he pressed seemed to work. It probably didn't help either, with his comment about 'Spirit Evolving before his friends get turned into goop'.

Sophia crossed her arms, glaring at the bookworm digimon. "Yeah, no pressure there."

Takuya kept pressing buttons, almost willing the Spirit to wake up and aid him. Finally, as Koji almost fell into the hole in the middle of the cavern, the symbol of Flame glowed on Takuya's D-Tector. The group was more focused on the 2 trying to escape Raremon, though.

"SPIRIIIIIIIIIIIT!" Takuya yelled all of a sudden. That sure seemed to work, since the next thing they heard him shout was a familiar line. **"EXECUTE SPIRIT EVOLUTION…AGUNIMON"**

Agunimon jumped out of the data cocoon, sprinting towards Koji and Tommy. Then he made the stupid mistake of slamming Raremon into the wall. It made the digimon spit his **acid sludge** everywhere! Ground, ceiling, towards the kids again. Luckily for them Agunimon could slice it before the acid actually hit them.

"Now is your chance. Run!" he told Koji and Tommy. But before anyone could make a move, another cocoon covered Agunimon, turning him back into Takuya. "Huh? What's going on? I turned back into me."

"Maybe you're still too tired from the last time." Sophia yelled from the sideline.

In the confusion, they forgot to move. It was after Raremon began spitting more sludge, they remembered he was still there.

"Watch out!" Takuya exclaimed, pushing Tommy to the ground. The movement somehow got Koji to fall down the hole. "Oh no!" Takuya yelled, watching the blue haired boy falling deeper down the hole, screaming.

Koichi yelled out Koji's name in a blind panic, but all they could do was watch the spot where he'd fallen down.

'Man... It's more intense when you're actually witness it.' Sophia thought.

They just kept hearing him scream, until suddenly... It stopped. All of the lights from the holes in the ceiling moved to the hole. Then Koji's voice was heard again from deep down.

"SPIRIIIIT!" And not long after, that familiar phrase came again, only slightly different. **"EXECUTE SPIRIT EVOLUTION…LOBOMON"**

As all the beams of light went back to their original position, a figure had made itself known. As you could've guessed, that figure was Lobomon, the legendary warrior of light.

"Wow..."

"Man! Did I look that cool?"

"Yeah, but different."

"That's the legendary warrior of light: Lobomon."

All those comments were said as Lobomon floated in front of Raremon. He got into fighting position.

"I've never seen anything more beautiful... In my whole life." Zoe said.

JP agreed. "Me neither."

"You can say that again!" Takuya also agreed.

"Go get him, Pretty boy!" Sophia cheered him on.

" **ACID SLUDGE"** Raremon yelled, aiming his attack at the new warrior.

He was quick to react though. **"LOBO KENDO"** Lobomon pulled out a light saber look-alike weapon, charging at Raremon.

He sliced through every glob of acid, finally making his way to the other digimon. When he got close enough, he jumped, landing on Raremon's head and immediately sticking his kendo stick in the digimon's head. As he screamed out in pain, his Fractal Code appeared, covering its entire body.

"Now you talking trash heap, prepare to be recycled." he said pulling out his white and blue D-Tector. **"FRACTAL CODE DIGITIZE."**

And with that out of the way, the Fractal Code disappeared into the D-Tector, leaving only a small egg behind. The egg floated away as Lobomon turned back into Koji. Apparently that Spirit Evolving took a lot outta him. He was sitting on his knees, panting slightly. Takuya and Tommy went to him to try and help.

"Hey, you okay?" Takuya asked. "Let me help ya up."

But as Takuya bent to help him up, Koji shot him a cold glare. "Don't touch me!" he said, _**clearly**_ not wanting to be touched or helped. Takuya stepped back, shocked at the sound of his voice, maybe? "I don't need your help, or anyone else's!" After a moment he began to raise up. "But I guess I should thank you for saving me. I always repay my debs."

"I didn't do it so you could owe me, you know." Takuya commented, which was completely ignored by the bandana wearing teen.

"My name's Koji Minamoto and you are?" After a moment of silence, he asked again. "So are you gonna tell me? I can't repay you if I don't know your name."

"I'm Takuya Kanbara." the goggle-head answered.

"Takuya, huh?" he turned around, walking away. "See ya."

The other teens arrived at Takuya's side as Koji left.

"What's his deal?" JP asked, putting his hands behind his head.

Zoe just walked by towards some random tunnel. "Come on you guys let's get out of here this place smells like dead fish."

Sophia looked as she went to the random tunnel. "Umm... Not to play smartass, but the tunnel to get out of here easiest is here." she said, still standing in front of the hole with Koichi.

The group, who'd momentary seemed to have forgotten about the 2 of them, turned from following Zoe and went to the duo. On the way to the Trailmon station, some kids decided to get to know each other better. Even though Sophia already knew them, she still decided to play along with it all.

She walked up next to Zoe first. "Hey, that language you spoke earlier. That was Italian, right?"

Zoe looked up, smiling. "Yeah! How'd you know? Are you Italian too?" she asked, almost sparkling at the thought of another Italian in the group.

"Only part Italian." Sophia answered, sweatdropping but still smiling. "Most part of me is Dutch, though."

"That's cool!" a new voice joined in.

It was Tommy.

"You think so?" Sophia asked the small boy.

Tommy nodded eagerly. "Though, not as cool as Spirit Evolving."

The brunette girl shrugged. "Can't argue with you there."

"I wanna be just like Takuya and Spirit evolve!" Tommy then looked as the ground with sadness in his eyes. "But... JP says I won't get a Spirit. He says I'm too much a pipsqueak to get one."

"Of course you'll get a Spirit." Sophia said, feeling bad for the young kid. "2 of the kids who got here got one. It wouldn't surprise me if the same happened to you."

"You really think so?" Tommy asked hopefully.

The girl nodded. "Until then, we'll protect you, okay?"

Smiling, Tommy nodded. "You're just like a big sister." he commented.

That comment got Sophia thinking. She _was_ a big sister! But... Did she make it to this world?

'She was out with mom after all... Maybe she's still in the other real world...' Filled with new determination, she glared up to the sky. 'I'll be back, sis. Even if you're not here, I'll find a way to you and mom. I promise!'


	3. Kumamon Baby, Light My Fire

Heya~

Back again with a new chapter, and FINALLY after 5 years decided to make a writing scedule. Because apparently, I can't write unless I've got a dealine, who knew? ...Yeah, I think everyone in my life knew...

Anyway~ I've added some fails down here, whether they're spelling errors or other fails. Hopefully you can laugh at them ;)

Well, hope you all enjoy~

 **Disclaimer: I do not and will never own Digimon Frontier. I do own Sophia, her Spirits and any changes made that didn't happen in the anime.**

* * *

The group of 6 had finally made it to the Trailmon station. In front of them, just one platform away, was a big red Trailmon.

"If you really wanna go home, all you have to do is hop on here." Neemon said, pointing at the Franken Trailmon.

"It's that easy?" JP asked no one specific.

"Neemon! A word please." Bokomon exclaimed, grabbing said digimon's pants. As he was dragging him away by the pants, no one could understand him anymore, cuz Neemon was babbling right through it.

"I'm taking that bad boy home. Huh?" JP looked at the others waiting for them to agree with him. "How 'bout it guys?" No one answered like he'd expected to. The only sound heard was Bokomon snapping Neemon's pants and Neemon saying 'Ouch' every time he did. JP looked down at Tommy. "You don't really wanna stay here do ya?" He then looked at Sophia and Koichi, who looked away from him, then Takuya and Zoe, getting the same reaction. He groaned. "Fine! You dweeps enjoy your little digital freak show." he jumped off the platform. "Come on Tommy let's blow this stupid pop stand."

But Tommy didn't follow. Zoe looked at him questioning. "Aren't you going with him?" she asked.

"I've decided I wanna stay here with you." Was Tommy's immediate answer.

This shocked pretty much everyone. "I thought you wanted to go home." Zoe asked, a little shocked.

"Not anymore." Tommy said. "I wanna stay and find my Spirit so I can be just like Takuya."

"Well, I'm flattered, but you should really go with JP." Takuya said, pushing the boy towards JP. "It's dangerous here, Tommy, and besides-"

He was cut off by Sophia grabbing his wrist. "If he wants to stay, let him stay." she said. "Besides, I'll be here to protect him, right Tommy?"

The small boy smiled. "Right!"

Takuya seemed to be thinking about it for a second. He looked Sophia straight in the eyes. "Alright then." he finally said. "Tommy can stay, but protect him well! Promise?"

"Promise!"

Takuya turned to Zoe. "How 'bout you, hah?" he asked the blond.

"I have a name." Zoe told him.

"Okay, Zoe." the goggle head said, seemingly bored by her. "So, are ya leaving?"

"Why? Would you miss me?" she asked him jokingly.

"I won't be responsible for your safety, like Sophia with Tommy, you know." Takuya said pointing from her to the duo he mentioned.

"Good one Romeo, I'll be fine."

"This oughta be fun." Takuya finally turned to Koichi. "So how 'bout you? Are you leaving?"

Koichi shook his head. "I'm staying here." he said. "I still have something to take care of here." he muttered quietly.

The group watched as the Trailmon left with JP. They all watched as the Trailmon disappeared in the fog, coughing.

'Alright, disappeared in the fog, soo... 3...2...1...'

Right on cue, the group could hear footsteps coming their way. Turning to where they heard it coming from, they saw JP with a sheepish smile on his face coming towards them.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Takuya asked confused.

Rubbing the back of his head, he sheepishly answered. "To be honest I have absolutely no idea." to which a certain brunette rolled her eyes.

"Well, I'm not gonna be responsible for your safety. You're on your own." Zoe said with one hand on her hip.

With that comment another argument between Takuya and Zoe began. Luckily this one didn't take long and soon the group was on the move. They were walking alongside the Trailmon tracks in silence. That is, until Bokomon decided to interrupt it.

The small digimon hopped next to Takuya. "I hope you're planning on helping us, mister Takuya." he said, pointing at the goggle-wearing boy. Though, Takuya seemed to pay little attention to him. "You're carrying with you the Spirit of Agunimon one of the Twelve Legendary Warriors. You can defeat the digimon turned evil by Cherubimon." He then went from calm to talking totally panicked. "Only you have the power to save us! You must help us repair the parts of the digital world that have been destroyed!"

"I think you need to calm down, buddy." Takuya said, not having changed the laid back position he was walking in.

"Agreed." Sophia said, jumping into their conversation.

"Me too." the others agreed.

This frustrated Bokomon only more. "My name is Bokomon and I am not your 'buddy'! I don't think you understand the severity of the situation here."

This just caused for Sophia to facepalm. "Of course not! We're just kids that landed in some strange world. How could we possibly know _anything_ from this world?"

"Sorry, didn't need to yell." Bokomon apologized. "But we need the data of the Fractal Code, it's the only way to rebuild the digital world." he was begging on his knees right about now. "Please, help us get the Fractal Code back, save our world before it's too late. Will you?"

When Takuya still showed no interest, the digimon began yelling at Neemon to help him convince Takuya. Of course Neemon said something dumb which resulted in another pants-snapper.

Suddenly everyone's D-Tectors started acting up again. _"Attention! Go to the Forest Terminal, immediately."_ the familiar voice of Ophanimon said from the device.

"What's a Forest Terminal?" Takuya wondered out loud, not taking his eyes of his D-Tector.

"What _is_ a Forest Terminal?" The others asked, looking at each other as if expecting they knew.

"How am I supposed to find it?" Takuya asked his D-Tector. But before any answer could be given, the signal dropped. "Hey! Hey, answer me!" he demanded, pressing the buttons.

Bokomon pulled out his book, searching on info about the Forest Terminal. "The Forest Terminal is a station located deep within the rear of the Forest Kingdom." he explained. "We just follow the tracks. They'll take us right to it."

"How far do we have to follow them?" Neemon asked.

"Well let's see..." Bokomon looked through the book again. "It says... It says..." he growled in frustration. "All the way."

Takuya sighed. "You're full of useless information aren't you?"

They began walking again. As they walked for several minutes, some decided to try and make a conversation with each other. Being in the middle of the group, Sophia heard most of the conversations, not that she was paying much attention.

"What grade are you in anyway?" JP asked, angered by the goggle head.

"Sixth. Is that a problem?"

"Well I'm in seventh grade!"

"Like I'm supposed to care."

"Since when do grades matter so much?" Sophia asked, joining their conversation. "I'm in seventh too, but you don't hear me shouting it out loud like it's the most important thing in the world."

"Oh yeah? How old are you?" JP asked, still irritated and obviously wanting to be the oldest.

Sophia smirked. "Thirteen."

With that JP fell silent, while Sophia went to Tommy and Zoe to hear what they were talking about.

"Tommy why didn't you go home?" the blond asked.

"I already told you. I wanna be like Takuya." Zoe looked at him confused. "To become a digimon so I won't be scared all the time."

Zoe looked at the little boy with a sad smile. "What about your mom and dad waiting at home?" she asked. "Bet they're worried."

Tommy gasped and looked at his feet at the thought. "I miss my parents, but when I come back I won't be afraid anymore, so they'll forgive me for being gone."

Then he ran towards Sophia, who lifted him up. He cried a little on her shoulder while they kept walking.

Zoe smiled at them. "You know, you really act like an older sister to him." she said. "Are you family?"

Sophia gave her a sad smile, shaking her head. Koichi noticed and laid a hand on her shoulder.

Getting the hint, she talked. "I have a little sister at home. She's ten." she explained. "I kinda miss her..." She let Tommy walk on his own again. "I think acting like Tommy's sister is to fill up that 'younger sibling' gap."

Koichi smiled at her. "I'm sure you'll see her again soon."

Smiling sadly, she nodded, not saying a word. Around night time, the group arrived at a cliff. The Trailmon tracks they followed was broken…just like the rest of the road. There was no way across the canyon.

"It sure is deep." Koichi said.

"Check it out guys." JP pointed to a track. "That trail leads to the bottom."

As they followed the trail with their eyes, they noticed a few lights at the bottom of the cliff.

"Looks like a village down there." Takuya said. "Maybe they can help us."

Everyone agreed and went down the trail. Sophia eyed her dark haired friend.

"Koichi?" she asked, getting his attention. "You've been kinda quiet on our way here, aside from the talk we had. Something wrong?"

"It's nothing. Just..." Koichi looked up to the sky. "Just thinking about Koji."

The girl gave his a small smile. "Don't worry too much. You'll get through this." she encouraged. "Siblings always do." Koichi gave her a small, sad smile back. "Let's just focus on getting those Spirits for now."

"Right."

When the group reached the end of the trail, the lights they'd seen earlier were gone. There wasn't even a trace of a village.

"That's weird." JP said. "I could've sworn those lights were coming from right here."

"Looked like that to me." Zoe agreed.

Meanwhile Tommy was looking at something completely different. He pulled Takuya's arm. "Takuya..."

He turned to where Tommy was looking at, quickly followed by the others. There engraved in the stone wall was a giant angel looking over at twelve weird looking symbols that were forming a circle.

"What is that?" Takuya asked.

"Kind of pretty." Zoe commented.

"I agree." Sophia said.

"Pretty… pretty they say." Bokomon sighed, grabbing his book once again. "These are the marks of the Twelve Legendary Warriors."

"The Twelve Legendary Warriors?" everyone asked at the same time, very confused about it.

"Hmm, I've never heard of them." Neemon said.

"Are you serious? The legend of the Twelve Warriors is the first thing we learn in digital world history." Bokomon argued.

After a short pause, Neemon spoke again. "I've must have been sick that day, but they sure are pretty."

"Told ya!" the girls exclaimed in unison.

While Bokomon told them the story of the legendary warriors, Sophia looked around the circle for the symbols she didn't recognize. Finally she saw them. Symbols that looked like 音 and 花. As she wondered what they meant, she heard something interesting in Bokomon's story.

"It was then that ten brave warriors rose up against him. But the ten of them weren't enough. As through a miracle, two other warriors came to their aid. After a fierce battle they defeated Lucemon, restoring the peace. The legend says that one day the Spirits of these first ten Ancient Warriors will rise again in times of trouble. But nothing is heard of the two mysterious warriors."

'Don't worry, they will rise. I'll make sure of it.'

Tommy's voice suddenly snapped her out of her thoughts. "I know that symbol." He said, pointing at the symbol at the very top of the circle.

"It's the same one we saw when Takuya spirit evolved into Agunimon." Zoe finished his thought.

"And that mark next to it was the one on Koji's shoulder when he turned into Lobomon." Tommy said, again pointing at a symbol.

"You're right." Koichi said.

"I wonder if I'll be next." Zoe wondered. "Oh, I hope my digimon's cute."

"I don't care about being cute, as long as I still look like a girl." Sophia joined in.

"I wanna be the like biggest, scariest digimon ever." Tommy exclaimed in excitement.

"Not likely shorty, I mean there's no way we'll become digimon." JP said, as if purposely trying to break the little kid's dreams.

"Shut it, JP!" Sophia snapped. "Don't crush his dream like that!"

JP ignored her and took some notes of the marks. Where the heck he got the notebook and pencil from, is still the question. Noticing the lights behind them, Takuya turned to see they were being watched.

"We've got… company." he said, fully turning around.

As the rest turned around, they finally noticed all the Candlemon jumping out of hiding. They were surrounded! An elderly Candlemon stepped…floated forward with two others at his side.

"Why have you humans come to our village? You're not welcome here." elderly Candlemon told them.

"We're on our way to the Forest Terminal." Takuya explained. "Sorry to disturb you, we're just passing through."

"You're melting my heart." The elder Candlemon said.

"Oohh! That's a no-no." the others said in choir.

"You mean to steal the ancient artifact from us, don't you?" elder Candlemon accused them. "Well you won't get away with it."

"He's right. The humans must be punished!" the Candlemon on his right exclaimed.

"Hey boss, you want us to wax them for ya?" the Candlemon on left asked.

"Wait!" Bokomon screamed. "Stop let me explain." He gestured to the 6 kids behind him. "These humans have come to help us save the digital world, not steal some artifacts."

Takuya looked down at the small digimon. "But we didn't know that at first." He said.

Sophia elbowed him lightly in the stomach. "Play along Takuya!" she whisper shouted.

Bokomon continued to talk to the Candlemon. "This may be hard to believe, but somehow this boy was infused with the Spirit of one of the Twelve Legendary Warriors; Agunimon."

"Did you say Agunimon?" the elder asked. "Impossible!"

"That's a hot one."

"What if it really is him?"

"He's pulling our wicks."

The Candlemon trio in front of the children turned around and started whispering things to each other. When they were done they turned back to the gang and their behavior had done a 180.

"Please forgive our rude behavior, my dear young friends." The elder said, floating towards them. "We are the Candlemon tribe. It is our sacred duty to protect the ancient artifacts." He explained. "So with of inherited the Spirit of a Legendary Warrior?"

"It was this one." Bokomon pointed at the google-head. "Takuya."

"Ah, well you certainly have a brave face, young man." Elder Candlemon said, about Takuya's _scared_ face might I add. "On behave of all the Candlemon tribe, I'll bid you all welcome. Please be our guest."

'Heh… Be our guest. Who does he think he is? Lumière?'* Sophia thought, following the Candlemon.

The group followed the living candle to his tribe. There were several Candlemon dancing around a huge, flaming candlestick, which had the symbols of the Warriors imprinted in it. They were dancing around the fire underneath it, holding huge clover four's in each hand.

"Looks like a giant birthday party." Commented Takuya.

Elder Candlemon told them it was a welcome ceremony just for them, and invited them to come closer to the flames. When they did get close to the fire, the Candlemon suddenly threw their clovers in the flames, causing green gas to emerge from it. They waved their arms to make the gases come even higher to the humans' faces.

"Oh, look at this it's Sleeping Clover." Bokomon said, holding up one of the unburnt clovers.

"Ah, well it's nappy time anyway." Neemon said sleepy, before both he and Bokomon fell to the ground, sound asleep.

The digimon duo were quickly joined in dreamland by Tommy, JP, Zoe and Koichi. Takuya and Sophia were struggling to stay awake.

'Thank god I've got dad's stubbornness….'

"So you claimed the Spirit of Agunimon, have you? Hah, we will shed some light on this!" elder Candlemon said.

While the elder was commanding his tribe something, Takuya was busy waking up the others. Zoe, JP and Koichi were the first ones to wake, even though it was just a little. They were having some trouble waking up Tommy, though.

"Hey, we can't stay here. Come on." Takuya said while shaking Tommy. Then he saw the river next to the village. "The river!"

Those who were awake, or at least half awake, understood his plan and ran towards it, Takuya carrying Tommy with him. They dove in on Takuya's command and were immediately fully awake. The goggle-head saw Tommy struggling to swim, so he grabbed him and emerged from the water.

"That was a great idea." he said sarcastically.

"I'll never complain about my alarm clock again." Zoe complained.

"Next time mom says she'll wake me with a bucket of water, I'm not complaining!" Sophia laughed. "Beats this!"

"Yeah, nice way to wake up." JP complained. "Did we really have to jump into the river?"

"Takuya said we had to dive in, or we'd get burned up." Tommy told him.

"That, and it was the fastest way to wake everyone up." Koichi added.

"Oh, did I disturb your beauty sleep?" Takuya asked sarcastically, possibly getting annoyed by all the complaining.

Sophia wacked the duo upside the head. "Argue when we're not IN DANGER!"

"We'll be save as long as we stay here. I'll bet fire digimon like Candlemon can't get near the water."

While Zoe did make a good point, none of them had counted on the Candlemon jumping on the wall! Seriously? How?!

"Guess again, human!" one of them yelled. **"LAVA LOOGIE"**

They then spat a blast of flames at the swimming kids. Luckily they went under water in time. They proceeded to follow Takuya until they got near a small, hidden split in the cliff, where they got up again for air. As they were spying on the closer coming Candlemon tribe, Takuya came up with a plan.

"I'll distract them, then on my signal you guys make a break for it." He said, taking his first step in becoming the leader.

"Some plan." Zoe said full of sarcasm. What is it with people and sarcasm today?!

"Hang on a second 'mister president'. I don't remember making you leader of this stupid club." JP commented.

"If you think it's so stupid you should've gone home." Sophia muttered frowning at him. "Besides, it's the best plan we have right now. Unless you can come up with something better."

Zoe looked at her. "Well, we're all in this together, right? So any decision we make, we make as a team."

Another couple of minutes of arguing went by, until the Candlemon showed up. They dove beneath the water again until they'd passed, only to start again with the argument.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence." Takuya said- Again with the sarcasm?! C'mon!

"I'll go for your plan." Sophia sighed. "We gotta get out of here, and Takuya is the only one able to Spirit Evolve…" she looked at the other 4. "I don't know about you guys, but I don't feel like getting fried."

Koichi nodded. "I do agree that we need to get Tommy out of here, being the youngest and all." He looked at Takuya next. "But you shouldn't have to do this alone, what if it goes wrong?"

"Just get Tommy out of here, okay?"

Without another word, Takuya went down under again, leaving the team behind.

"Okay, let's move."

They started climbing, which was kinda hard at some points. But they still all managed to get to a sturdy ledge.

"I see one of them! GET HIM!"

The not-yet-Spirit holders froze, thinking of them was spotted. Could be. They were with a pretty big group after all. One of them could have easily been spotted. Looking back at the Candlemon, however, they noticed it wasn't them who were seen. It was Takuya! He was being chased by 2 Candlemon who were trying to hit him with their **Lava Loogie** , while he was trying to work out his D-Tector.

"Come on help me out here." Takuya said to the device, while still pressing buttons. The Candlemon spat out another **Lava Loogie** , which hit the ground behind Takuya. But the force of the explosion caused his D-Tector to slip from his hand. "Oh no! My D-Tector!"

"Takuya!"

'Why is he standing there, looking at the Candlemon like an idiot? Just grab that thing already!'

He finally looked away from the Candlemon, and instead of standing up and running, he jumped at the device. "Spirit Evolution time!" he shouted, holding the D-Tector in the air. It then glowed, and Takuya was covered in the streams of Fractal Code.

" **EXECUTE SPIRIT EVOLUTION… AGUNIMON."**

The few on the cliff ledge were cheering for him, because he finally managed to Spirit Evolve. That cheering was short lived though, because the next thing they know, he does something stupid… While the Candlemon were spitting out more **Lava Loogie** , he send a **Pyro Punch** their way, which only caused their flames to grow bigger.

"Fire attacks don't have effect on candle digimon!" Sophia shouted at him.

"He should've known that." Zoe muttered.

"Yeah that wasn't too bright." JP said, turning around. "Come on, I'd better get us out of this hole before we get waxed." He said, before slipping on ice, that wasn't there before. "I hate ice skating." He groaned.

"Be careful guys." Zoe said, also struggling to hold her balance.

"I'm trying." Tommy said.

"This ice wasn't here before, was it?" Koichi asked.

Sophia shook her head. "It wasn't. I sure didn't feel any ice when I climbed up here."

JP looked up from the ice, only to see a cave. "Wow, I didn't see that before."

"We should be save from those hotheads is there." Zoe said.

"In an ice cave?" Sophia asked. "They'll just melt the place."

Koichi looked at it in confusion. "An ice cave in a Candlemon village?" he wondered out loud. "Isn't that a bit odd?"

Sophia nodded in agreement. "It just screams 'There's something hidden in here!'."

Looking back at Agunimon, the gang saw he was not doing too well. He was surrounded by the spewed out flames of the Candlemon. How rookie level flames were hurting the Warrior of flame was still a question.

Tommy sure didn't like the way things were going. He grabbed his D-Tector and started pressing buttons. "Please, give me a Spirit." He tried. "I wanna help!"

"Give it up kid." JP told him. "The Spirits of a Legendary Warrior would never give their power to a pipsqueak like you."

"Yes, they will!" Sophia exclaimed, stopping herself before she said too much. "I'm sure the Legendary Warriors don't mind him being little. Why else would he get a D-Tector?" she asked him. "Besides, I haven't seen you try yet. Why would a Legendary Warrior give their power to someone who just gives up and doesn't try a thing?"

Her words seemed to dig into his skull. Next thing he was doing, was trying to get a Spirit. And not only him, but the others were pressing buttons as well.

'Can't seem like the odd one out.' Sophia thought as she grabbed her own D-Tector and played along.

" **PARAFIN PARALYZER"** One of the Candlemon spun around, shooting hot wax everywhere at Agunimon's body.

"Man, that stuff hurts!" he exclaimed, followed by pained screaming. He was almost completely covered in wax, rendering him unable to move.

"Ah! Agunimon hang on!" Before an of the older kids could stop him, he was sliding down the hill. "Hang on Takuya! I'm coming!"

"Tommy, no!"

"Stop kid!"

"That's dangerous!"

"Do your best down there…"

He jumped in the river, took off his hat, filled it with water and threw it at the Candlemon. "Light out, you meanies." He said between throwing. "I won't be just a little kid in the way EVER AGAIN." Tommy yelled.

Just seconds after he yelled that, the floor of the ice cavern burst open, catching everyone by surprise. Out of it came a ball of light with a Spirit inside.

"Mamma mia!" Zoe gasped.

"A Spirit!" Sophia exclaimed.

The Spirit flew towards Tommy, who was still throwing water, stopping and hovering right in front of him, while the river around him turned into ice.

"It's a Spirit!" he exclaimed. He quickly grabbed his D-Tector and pointed it at the Spirit. "Spirit, come to me."

" _It is time."_

The next moment, Tommy had completely disappeared under the Fractal Code.

" **EXECUTE SPIRIT EVOLUTION…KUMAMON"**

When it left, the familiar, or unfamiliar depending on who you ask, figure of Kumamon stood there in all his icy cuteness.

Zoe gasped at the sight. "That's amazing."

Koichi nodded. "I agree."

"That's impossible!" JP whined.

"It is so possible!" Sophia exclaimed. "Kick their butts, Tommy!"

"It's Kumamon the Legendary Warrior of Ice." Bokomon said, apparently loud enough for the children on the ledge to still hear it.

"He's full of useless information…" Sophia muttered. "Hey, genius! There's ice everywhere! We could've figured out he's the Warrior of Ice on our own!" she yelled at Bokomon, who started throwing a fit afterwards.

"Time to teach you bullies a lesson!" Kumamon said to the Candlemon. **"CRYSTAL FREEZE"**

His attack hit one of the Candlemon, causing ice to creep up and freezing him solid.

"Hey there, teddy bear." The other Candlemon growled. "You want a playmate? Hatcha!"

Fire was suddenly spewing from his mouth as he spun around. Where he stood was now a flaming, spinning tower. After a bit, data streams were covering the top of the tower, where presumably Candlemon was. As soon as those streams disappeared, the flames and Candlemon were replaced by Wizardmon.

" **CRYSTAL FREEZE"**

Kumamon tried freezing the opponent again, but with no luck this time. Wizardmon was too fast and jumped, kicking Kumamon out of the way before landing. "Take off, teddy!"

"KUMAMON!" Agunimon yelled, worried for his comrade.

But Wizardmon just laughed at him. "Looks like the great Agunimon has a little problem with waxy build up. How 'bout a little **MAGICAL GAME**? Tatahah~"

With that said, Wizardmon disappeared. Agunimon finally broke free from his waxy prison and stared searching for the digimon. Lightning suddenly appeared seemingly out of nowhere, almost hitting Agunimon, hadn't he dodged them. Then Wizardmon reappeared again in front of Agunimon.

"Not bad, Legendary Warrior, but I've got plenty up my sleeve!" he said, before multiple Wizardmon popped up around him. "Too bad, you're going to lose, no matter which Wizardmon you choose."

"Which is the real Wizardmon?" JP asked in a panicky voice.

"They all look the same to me." Zoe said.

"I can't find any differences." Koichi said.

Then Wizardmon spoke up again. "Agunimon. Don't you see? All these Wizardmon are me. We all look real, because we are. Just try to run, you won't get far!"

Sophia raised an eyebrow at that rhyming. "How the hell is he doing that so fast?"

"Every warrior must fall. Your time is up! **ELECTRO SQUALL!"**

All Wizardmon fired their attack at the same time at the same point. Agunimon swiftly jumped out of the way, making the attacks collide. The attacks caused enough light to reveal a shadow behind one of the Wizardmon, which Kumamon noticed.

"Agunimon! Look down here!" he called out. "Only one of them has a shadow!"

Agunimon thanked the smaller warrior. "Game's over!" he yelled out, kneeing the Wizardmon with his fire spewing knee-armor. The digimon fell to the ground, turned black and had his Fractal Code revealed. "I never did believe in magic." Agunimon said, grabbing the D-Tector. "Here's a trick for ya! **FRACTAL CODE DIGITIZE** "

After scanning him, he turned back into a Candlemon. The group on the ledge cheered for the duo.

"Yeah! Molto bene!" Zoe cheered in her native language.

"Te gek!" Sophia exclaimed in Dutch.

"YEAH WHAT THEY SAID!" JP exclaimed. "Whatever it meant…"

"Molto bene means very good." Zoe explained.

"Te gek has two meanings actually. Too crazy, and awesome." Sophia explained. "I meant awesome~"

While Agunimon helped Kumamon up, the rest of the group slid down the mountain and headed toward them. Kumamon thanked Agunimon for helping him up.

"No, thank you." Agunimon replied. "You're one brave little bear."

While the guys were engulfed in Fractal Code the other future warriors arrived at their side. They complimented the boys, and told Takuya off for making such a risky bad move. A couple of Candlemon, including the elder one, came toward them.

"I'm afraid I owe you all an apology." Elder Candlemon told them. "The truth is we thought you might possess the Spirits of the Legendary Warriors, but we still had to make sure. I'm sorry we didn't trust you."

"So then all of this has been a test?" Tommy asked.

"Well that pretty much stinks." Takuya said, angered by that statement, just like the others. "You're lucky I don't pinch your lights out for that!"

Elder Candlemon laughed nervously. "I'm so sorry. You have every right to be angry."

Takuya accidently pressed a button on the D-Tector he still had in his hand for…some reason. _"Fractal Code Render."_ Ophanimon's voice said through it.

Out of the device flowed a data stream. It went upwards, repairing the bridge going over the canyon.

"Wizardmon held within him the Fractal Code for the bridge, with protected our village from evil digimon." Elder Candlemon explained to them. He turned to Takuya. "Young Takuya for many years no one has crossed this canyon, but you have my official permission to use this bridge. Follow the tracks and they will lead you to the Forest Terminal, but it is a perilous journey."

That seemed to make JP nervous. "Maybe we should think about this guys. There's still time to go home."

'Whatever perilous means… It must be something like 'dangerous' or something.'

Zoe just giggled at JP's comment. "You're just jealous because Tommy found his inner digimon and you haven't yet."

"Why would I even care about that? Shorty can have it." JP said.

He was about to say something else, but Sophia cut him off before he could say something. "If you don't care, why did you try to get a Spirit earlier~?"

He blushed in embarrassment while the girls gave each other a high five. Probably a high five for teasing the poor plump boy. Their attention was back to the bridge when Takuya spoke up again.

"Hey, somebody else just beat us across the bridge." He said.

Everyone looked up in time to see a Trailmon pass by. Everyone knew what the others were thinking immediately. That was probably Koji.

'How long is it gonna take till we meet up again?' Sophia thought.

* * *

*If you didn't get this reference, you must've had a bad Disneyless childhood and have to go watch Beauty and the Beast right away!

And here's a few epic fails~ Looking back, I really don't understand why I didn't ask for a second opinion…xD:

Bokomon: "You can defeat the digimon then evil be Cherubimon." (you can defeat the digimon _turned_ evil _by_ Cherubimon)

Through wards (towards)

Beated (beat)

And my self made ending was also horrible, but I didn't like the ending of the episode back then... I was a stupid kid...


	4. Kazemon Kicks It

Hi guys~

It's time again for a new chapter~ On a small sidenote, did anyone ever notice that if you switch 2 letters of Bokomon, you get Bookmon? I thought it was kinda funny xD ... I'm probably late to that party, huh?

Welp. I hope you all enjoy~

 **Disclaimer: Let's see... *opens wallet* Nope. No money. Guess I don't own digimon or any of its characters. I do still own Sophia, her Spirits, the small plot changes and any digimon that doesn't appear on the wiki.**

* * *

Not long after the warriors left the Candlemon village, it was getting even darker than it already was. But because they didn't really trust the Candlemon due to their 'test' earlier, they didn't want to stay the night at their place.

"Guys, it's starting to get really dark. Shouldn't we go to sleep?" Koichi suggested.

"I'm with ya, Koichi." Sophia said, covering up a yawn.

Tommy nodded, rubbing his eyes. "Me too." He said. "Spirit Evolving takes a lot out of you."

"Alright then guys. Let's rest here." Takuya finally agreed.

Nobody disagreed with him there, or even commented on him taking the leader position again. Everyone was too tired. It had been a busy day after all. Takuya Spirit Evolving 3 times, first to fight Ceberumon, then Pagumon/Raremon, and then to fight the Candlemon/Wizardmon. No surprise that he was the first to fall asleep, of course followed by Tommy, who was tired from Spirit Evolving for the first time. The others were just tired because of the walking.

'What a time for that dumb sleeplessness to kick in.' Sophia thought grumbling.

She always had trouble falling asleep, especially in unknown areas. Most likely due to her staying up passed 3 AM on a daily basis. And of course right when she was about to fall asleep, something disturbed her. Right next to her, Koichi suddenly bolted up, soaked in sweat and with a panicked look on his face.

Curious, Sophia raised an eyebrow. "You okay there, Koichi?"

He looked up surprised, obviously not expecting someone to be up. Seeing who it was, he just gave a reassuring smile. "I'm fine. It was just a nightmare." He said. "But why are you still up?"

"Can't sleep." The brunette sighed. "To much on my mind I guess. That's usually the case when I can't sleep."

"Really?" Koichi asked. "What are you thinking about then?"

"Nothing important really." She lied. "Just a bit homesick, I guess." Again a lie.

"You're not a very good liar." Okay, that was a surprise. "Can't you tell me? I trusted you with my story."

Sophia sighed again. "Fine… But promise to keep it secret." Koichi nodded, making his promise. "I'm…kinda from a different dimension." She watched Koichi, who stayed surprisingly calm. "I came here with the whole house. But…only my dad and I were home." Tears made their way into the brunette's eyes. "I have no idea if mom or my sister made it to this world. Or if we can return home."

Koichi didn't say a word. He just grabbed the girl by the arm and pulled her closer, letting her cry on his shoulder. And for once, instead of bottling up her sadness, she cried. She let it all out. At some point, even she fell asleep on his shoulder. Koichi smiled softly at her tear stained face, as he slowly laid her back on the ground, falling asleep himself soon after. The next morning they woke up to Zoe yelling at everyone to wake up. Together they spend the next 10 minutes waking the oh-so-great leader…

When he was finally awake, they were on their way again. After a couple of hours of walking, they ended up in a desert area. Everyone was tired at that point.

'Well… At least I can get fit because of this walking…' Sophia thought. 'Then again…' She added after eying JP.

"So guys are we there yet?" Previous mentioned plump boy asked.

"Let's see what's wrong with this picture? Desert looking wasteland, Forest Terminal?" Takuya compared, already stating the obvious. "I'd say no."

"I'm tired." Tommy said, stopping in his tracks. "Let's take a rest"

Instead, Takuya pushed him forward, saying something about a scenic lookout up ahead… Really? Because the only thing they could see were miles and miles of sand and nothing!

Feeling bad or the kid, Sophia crouched down in front of Tommy. "Climb on." She told him. "I can give you a piggyback ride, so you can rest a little."

"Are you sure you can hold me?" he asked.

Sophia nodded, so he climbed on and they began moving again.

"You know JP, if you hadn't fed chocolate to that Trailmon, we'd be riding in air conditioning comfort right now." Takuya complained to the older boy.

"So he made a mistake, what are you gonna do? Take away his bowling shoes." Zoe asked.

Sophia raised an eyebrow. "Bowling shoes?" she wondered out loud. "What?"*

Before Zoe could give her an answer, a loud honk sounded through the air. It was a Trailmon, as Takuya was happily pointing out…loudly.

"There's no need to be so loud." Koichi commented. "We're right here."

The pink mole Trailmon slowed down, stopping just in front of Takuya.

"Hey, Trailmon, what's up?" The goggle-head asked. "Can you take us to the forest terminal?"

The train-like digimon looked to the side uncomfortably. "Oh, I overate at my last stop." He said. "Besides, I'm a freight train. No riders, no exceptions."

Before the Trailmon had even finished, Zoe had run up to him and jumped on one of his outer pipes.

"Trailmon, I am as light as bubble wrap." Zoe told him as she jumped on. "Andiamo**."

The others followed her example and jumped on. This included Tommy, who'd jumped off Sophia's back, but excluded Koichi, who listened and had respect for the fact he was a freight train, and Sophia because obvious reasons.

"Just think of us all as cargo." Takuya added to the lift-plea.

Suddenly Mole began moving up and down, shaking his paws. "Your little fingers are tickling me something awful." He said between laughs as he shook everybody off of him. "It's too much. I'd like to bend the rules, but I'm just too ticklish. I'm sorry, kids." As he began driving away from the group he said one more useless thing. "Keep on this track you'll get there." And with that piece of useless information, which they already knew, he was gone.

Takuya stared after him, still upside down on his head. "So much for…getting there soon." He said, while Zoe complained behind him.

"So much for not landing on your head, huh?" Sophia said with a small, amused smirk.

Zoe stood up from her spot in the dirt and yelled after the digimon. Of course this was to no avail, so the group had no other choice but to move on. Eventually after who knows how long, they ended up at a split route.

Bokomon jumped on the switch, swinging it from left to right and back multiple times. "The track splits here. Now with way to go? Left or right? Or right or left? Or…up or down? Long or low? Fast or slow? Time to make a decision." He said, jumping off the thing. "Urgh I made myself sick."

"You looked like such a little kid on that switch." Sophia teased the white digimon, who didn't look amused.

Takuya pointed to the left, to the desert area. "This way."

"That way." Zoe disagreed, pointing to the forest area.

Rolling her eyes, Sophia left the group, walking toward the right. She hated arguments, no matter how small, so why bother listening to one when you can just walk away from it? …Pretty bad logic, actually… She kept walking until she reached the Breeze Village train station. On the other side of the track she saw Koji, still sleeping. She decided to go over to him. Just as she set foot on the other platform, he woke up and saw Sophia.

"Urgh… Not you again." He muttered loudly. "What do you want?"

"I just wanna talk…"

He shrugged and turned, not even bothering to listen to her. This caused some anger to occur inside the brunette.

"Listen here, Pretty boy! You act so cruel around us, WHY?! We didn't do anything! I understand if you feel uncomfortable around others, or don't know how to make friends, but this isn't normal! Don't you let anyone into your heart?! Geez! Makes me wonder how badly you treat your parents!" Sophia immediately regretted that last part. She didn't mean it, when she goes on a rant she has little control over what she's saying.

Now it was Koji's turn to blow. "You know nothing of what I've gone through!" he yelled. "First my mom died when I was just a baby, and then my dad comes in with some other woman, trying to replace her! And he thinks it's okay! That I just need to accept her and forget my mother! And then I find out he's been lying to me about being an only child! That I apparently have a twin brother! YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT HOW MY LIFE IS!"

After he was done, Soph let him take a breather before asking another question. "A secret twin brother?"

Koji turned away. "Why do you care?!"

"It may not seem like it, but I do care. And I happen to know from experience that keeping something cropped up is not a good idea."

Koji shot a glance at her, seeing some worry in her eyes, and finally decided to tell. "Fine… Last night I had a dream that I was playing with a kid that looked exactly like me. We were I think about a year old. Then I saw my mother and she said 'you little boys do everything together, don't you?'. Then my father came in saying how that was expected from twins." He said, clearly trying to keep it as short as possible. "Happy now?"

Sophia nodded, glad she got him to open up a bit. Koji took that time to leave, but not before the gang dropped in. Zoe spotted them immediately instead of looking at the sign first.

"Hey, Koji. What's up?" she greeted.

Looking up, Koji and Sophia found Zoe, JP, Koichi and the digimon standing on the other side of the track.

Koichi smiled when he saw the brunette. "Sophia, so that's where you've been." But seeing his brother, he immediately fell silent.

Koji didn't have a response other than a split second stare, and just jumped off the platform.

"Eh? Where are you going?" Zoe asked as the lone-wolf walked in the direction of the forest, away from them.

He turned his head to face her for a second. "Where I go is my own business." He said. "Thanks for asking." Then he continued on his way to the forest.

"Oh, you're so antisocial!" Zoe called to his back.

"He reminds me of white chocolate." JP said, possibly trying to lift the mood a bit. "It may look good, but no taste."

Sophia shot glare his way. "Shut up, JP. You shouldn't say things about someone you hardly know." She said, remembering her own mistake earlier. "Besides, white chocolate is the best."

Bokomon went on to explain stuff about the village, but Sophia didn't pay much attention. Instead she pulled Koichi away to talk to him a little more privately.

"Sophia? What are you doing?" Koichi questioned.

The brunette just smiled. "I had a talk with Koji before you came." This silenced the boy. "He says he remembers having a brother, but that's pretty much it."

"Really?" he asked. "How?"

"He said he had some strange dream where he was playing with an identical looking boy. Then his mother appeared saying "You little boys do everything together, don't you?" and his dad saying how that was expected from twins." Sophia explained. "Other than that I think he's pretty much clueless…"

Koichi sighed happily. "At least it's going to be easier to tell him now."

Suddenly they heard JP shouting at them. "Hey, lovebirds! Come on! Let's check out this dump."

Completely silent for a few seconds, the duo looked at the plump boy. Finally a vein popped by Sophia. "Lovebirds?!" She picked up a stray pebble, throwing it at the back of JP's head. "Say that again, fat boy. I dare you!"

Sighing, the two went separate ways to look for…things? What were they looking for again? Sophia climbed on top of a tree branch, looking around. She saw JP busy with his D-Tector, Zoe on another way thicker tree branch and Koichi mostly shooting glances at the direction Koji left.

'Poor guy.' She thought.

Suddenly, she heard JP yelling. "Zoe! My D-Tector! It's flashing!"

Zoe turned around to face him, but she misplaced her foot and slipped. She fell on one of the huge roots and went down it like it was some kind of slide. Unfortunately the root stopped when it took a sharp turn downwards. Zoe screamed as she fell down and into the waiting hands of the giggling Floramon. When the others finally made it to Zoe, she told them the Floramon had invited them to lunch. Some stomachs growled and they all realized they hadn't eaten in over a day. They followed the flower digimon to a dessert-looking village and in one of the houses.

"How thoughtful of you to invite us for lunch." Zoe said as the soup was being placed in front of them.

Sophia nodded. "We haven't eaten in a while, I don't even care what I eat." She said. 'Which says something, cuz I'm very picky.' But they didn't need to know that part.

"Yeah, thanks." JP said. "I wouldn't mind a bowl or ten."

Koichi just ate his soup in silence. The girls followed his example, at least for 1 slurp.

"Molto bono! Yum!" Zoe exclaimed.

"Heerlijk!" Sophia exclaimed as well.

The boys glanced at them questioningly. "Eh… Melted what?" "Hee- huh?"

"Molto bono. It's Italian for delicious." Zoe explained. "This soup is great!"

Sophia nodded. "I agree. Heerlijk is Dutch for delicious as well."

The Floramon were happy to hear that.

"I must know, how do you call this soup?" Zoe asked them.

"Yeah, and how do you make it?" Koichi asked.

While the Floramon were busy showing how they make their 'Cram soup a la Floramon', Sophia was busy trying to finish the soup before the Floramon finished. Unfortunately the Floramon were done first, which caused a couple strange looks towards the girl who was still slurping happily.

"You're really gonna eat that?" JP asked her. "It's made in their heads."

"Most vegetables grow out of cow poop and some forms of candy and food are made with bugs, but we still eat that." Sophia countered, pushing away her empty bowl. "Thanks for the food."

She stood up, together with Zoe, and went outside with one of the Floramon. Zoe made a comment about the wind, causing the brunette to giggle.

"What?" Zoe asked her.

Sophia waved it off. "Nothing. Inside joke."

They were talking a bit more about the tree and the tourists that used to come. Zoe came up with the idea to plant some flowers to help getting back some tourists. But the Floramon said they weren't strong enough to dig in the hard soil.

"Well, I can help." Zoe said. "I know this strong guy."

She looked towards JP and the Floramon immediately caught on. They grabbed both him and Koichi by the arm, dragging them over to the girls.

"You have arms like tree trunks." One of the two Floramon said. "You'll be a good digger."

"And you look very strong too." The other one said about Koichi.

JP frowned and pulled his arm back. "Me? No way!"

"You know what impresses me?" Zoe asked Sophia, starting a little play. "Strong guys who help out, without even being asked."

Sophia nodded. "Those kinds of guys are the best."

Of course JP immediately agreed to help, trying to impress Zoe. Of course Koichi and the girls helped as well. All was going well, until suddenly 3 Mushroomon jumped out of a bush and started wrecking the flowers that were just planted.

"We are…" The first one said.

"The Mushroomon…" The second one continued.

"Brothers, yeah!" The third and last one finished.

The brothers told the Floramon about what they thought of planting flowers, about it being a waste of time. The Floramon desperately begged them not to destroy the flowers, but they didn't listen and launched a second attack.

" **GIGGLE GRENADE!"**

The attack launched a couple small mushrooms at the ground, which exploded and spread spores. Almost immediately after the Floramon inhaled the spores, they began giggling and laughing.

"What's so funny?" Zoe asked. "They're trouble."

The Mushroomon just chuckled, explaining how it were the spores that send the Floramon into an endless giggling.

"What did we ever do to deserve all this meanness?" one of the Floramon asked between giggles. "We used to greet the visitors at the station together, remember?"

"She's right. In those days, you were real fun guys." another agreed.

"You Floramon were always more popular with the tourists! They all liked you better!" One of the Mushroomon exclaimed.

"No matter how hard we tried to please those looky-loos, they thought you flower girls were cuter and nicer than us spore guys!" The brother on the right said, agreeing with the first one.

"That's not true." the first Floramon said. "They liked you guys too."

Another one took a step forward. "And your Mushroom mousse was so popular with the tourists." she took a moment to let out some giggles. "They liked it better than our soup."

"That is enough!" Mushroomon exclaimed, jumping in the air. **"MUSHROOM MASH!"**

He threw a mini-mushroom at the building the group just ate in. It exploded upon contact with the building, sending pieces flying everywhere. Bokomon and Neemon, who still were in the house while it exploded, ran out as quickly as they could.

"They're toasting tis place like an English muffin!" JP cried as he and all the others stared at where the house had just been.

'Can't he think without his stomach for once?' Sophia thought. 'Or at least not when we're IN DANGER!'

The Mushroomon brothers went back to where they had been standing, smirking. "It's over! We've had it with your flower power-"

"-and we're gonna-"

"-totally flatten Breezy village!"

"Hold it!" Zoe yelled as she stepped forward. The Mushroomon looked a little surprised that she went against them, and tried to argue with her, only to get slapped across the face. "You need to learn how to get along!" she told them. "Just because you feel like you're getting the short end of the stick, that doesn't give you the right to just go around destroying things. Try solving things peacefully."

Koichi nodded, adding his own bit to the argument. "Violence never solves anything. Why don't you just try to talk it out?"

Meanwhile Sophia snorted at what he said. 'Violence never solves anything. Boy, are you gonna like the rest of this adventure.'

"Yeah now listen up!" JP exclaimed, crossing his arms. "You toadstool heads can't just go barging in here with your purple mushroom caps, 'cause they're just plain ugly!" he told them. "Right?" he asked, turning his head to Zoe next to him.

"Did he just really..." Koichi asked, not even able to finish the question.

Sophia nodded. "He did... Idiot."

Hearing them, JP turned to them with a questioning look.

"You insulted them." Zoe said, strangely calm. "That's totally wrong."

JP finally seemed to realize that what said should not have been said. He turned back to the Mushroomon, laughing nervously. The moment the digimon said he was gonna get it, he started running. The Mushroomon seemingly forgot all about the other children and Floramon that were still there and just chased after the plump boy. While running, he was being bombed with **Mushroom mash.** Desperately JP tried to get his Spirit to appear, but with no luck. Eventually one of the bombs went off directly behind him, sending him flying.

"JP!" Zoe cried worriedly.

Her cry caused the Spirit to finally awaken and appear in front of the group.

"Yeah, my Spirit!" JP said, believing it to be his. He pointed his D-Tector in the air to capture the Spirit with. "Spirit Evolution!"

'Reject~!' Sophia thought amused as it passed the boy, going for Zoe instead.

" _It is time"_ Sounded from the device when the Spirit entered and soon, Zoe was covered with data streams.

" **EXE…CUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION! ... KAZEMON!"**

JP stared at the digimon that Zoe had become with disappointment. "Zoe evolved instead of me." he said sadly.

Sweat-dropping, Koichi looked at the girl next to him, who looked like she was trying to keep herself from throwing up. "Are you alright, Sophia?"

The brunette nodded. "Yeah, but the picture of JP as Kazemon just about cost me my lunch..."

They were snapped out of their talk when they saw the Mushroomon throw their mini-mushrooms at Kazemon. But she had none of that, using her **Hurricane wave** to deflect the attacks, making them explode midair. They tried again, same attack. This time Kazemon used her **Tempest twist** , which pretty much gave the same result with the mushrooms exploding midair. She didn't just stop at deflecting the attacks, though. Kazemon continued her attack, moving in closer to the Mushroomon brothers, resulting in a kick in their faces.

"And that could've been me!" JP shouted in enthusiasm.

"Dream on..." Sophia muttered.

The Mushroomon had enough by now. They jumped on one another, digivolving into Woodmon.

Kazemon ran towards him, flying in the air at the last second. "How about a little **Love tap**?" She asked, bumping against Woodmon with her butt.

The tree digimon almost immediately fell in love, allowing Kazemon to throw a barrage of kicks before he snapped out of it.

"Enough!" he yelled, trying to punch Kazemon, which missed.

But Kazemon was not done yet. She did a back-flip in the air, kicking Woodmon's forehead and snapping a small piece of wood off him.

"That really kinda tickled. My bark's feeling all funny." Was Woodmon's response to the attack. "But you see I'm not laughing! There is no escape!" He shot his arm in the direction of Kazemon. **"BRANCH BASH!"**

The attack hit head on, knocking the fairy down and causing her to de-digivolve back to Zoe.

"Zoe!" everyone yelled concerned for her safety.

Out of nowhere, or actually out of the woods, Koji appeared. "Hey! Cut it out!" he yelled.

But of course the digimon didn't listen. He went for his **Branch bash** on Zoe again, who just got out of the way in the nick of time. JP had enough of seeing 'his girl' in danger, so he grabbed the nearest shovel and hit Woodmon upside the back with it. The shovel broke upon impact, and Woodmon's only response was smacking the boy back. Koichi and Sophia resulted to throwing rocks and pebbles at him, which he only reflected. One of them even managed to hit Koichi on the head with at least ten times the force he himself threw it at.

"Koichi!" Sophia exclaimed, dropping the rocks to look over her friend.

He was bleeding from the head, so she looked around for something to wipe the blood with. But instead she found Koji looking their way, just standing.

She was about to say something when a voice echoed through her head. _'Why do I get a headache every time I look at him?'_

'What the- W-was that...' Sophia frowned. 'No time for that!' "Koji! Don't just stand there! Spirit Evolve!"

This snapped him out of it...whatever 'it' was, and he Spirit Evolved into Lobomon. Satisfied, Sophia turned back to Koichi. She could hear the battle behind her as Lobomon grabbed his light-saber kendo stick, but was too focused on finding something to wipe the blood away.

'Oh man! Why don't I keep a pack of tissues on me like mom always does?!' she thought in frustration, hearing Lobomon charging up his **howling laser**. 'Guess I'll have to...'

She grabbed a piece of her jacket and pressed it against the wound, slowly dabbing around it. For a minute she even felt his forehead, which seemed to be a little warm.

'I hope he's not coming down with anything.'

"Shadow creature!" Lobomon's voice suddenly sounded loudly, startling the girl out of her thoughts. "Be purified by the light!" As Woodmon started falling apart, his Fractal Code became visible. "Farewell, Woodmon. For good!" he added. **"FRACTAL CODE DIGITIZE!"**

As soon as the Code had entered the D-Tector, Woodmon de-digivolved back into the three Mushroomon they were before. They were absolutely clueless as to what happened to them, but good thing about that is that they're not evil anymore. Lobomon also changed back into Koji, who kneeled down, panting. His D-Tector was flashing and beeping, prompting him to press one of the buttons, which released the Fractal Code of the area. Everything was in bloom again, the tree turned a healthy color brown and its leaves returned in an instant.

Seeing Koji still on his knees in the grass, Sophia went to him. "Hey..." she said. "I just wanted to apologize for earlier. When I'm angry, I can't control what I'm saying. I didn't mean it." she explained. "Your behavior just reminds me of a person I don't like to be reminded of. A-and I know that's no reason to say all those thing, so I'm sorry."

Koji just stared at her. "...You still talk too much, you know?" he said with the smallest hint of a smirk.

"...Yeah." the girl answered with a smile.

With everything said and done, Koji turned around and left, but not before shooting one more glance at Koichi, who was being treated by a Floramon along with JP. Sophia washed her jacket in a nearby stream to get the blood out, wearing it around her waist when she was done to let it dry. After that she, and the others who were being treated, regrouped with Zoe. They were about to leave when Takuya and Tommy appeared.

"We have returned!" Takuya proclaimed proudly, like he was some sort of hero- oh wait...

"You blew it!" Zoe cried. "Where were you?"

Takuya rubbed the back of his head as he started 'explaining'. "That's quite a story." he said. "After a while we thought you might need us, so we decided to check back in."

"No need." Sophia said. "Zoe and Koji had it under control."

Zoe had her hands on her hips in a cocky manner. "You just made a wrong turn and missed a once in a lifetime show."

"Yeah right." Takuya was not believing it. "Don't try to sank us out Zoe. You know we didn't miss a thing."

"Well, you didn't get to see me Spirit Evolve."

That caught their attention. "Wait, you did what?!" "You Spirit Evolved?"

Sophia nodded. "Into Kazemon, Legendary Warrior of wind." she said, changing her tone to sound like Bokomon. "See! I can do this too!" she yelled at Bokomon afterwards, who once again started throwing a fit.

Takuya and Tommy looked at each other in disbelieve, before laughing loudly, voicing how they didn't believe she Spirit Evolved. Bad move. Next thing they knew, Zoe was at their throats trying to 'evolve their heads'. While Sophia was enjoying the little show, someone tugged on her sleeve. That someone was Koichi, who made a silent gesture to JP somewhat further ahead. The duo made their way over to him as he stared sadly at the sky.

"Who am I? Nobody?" he questioned as they reached him. "Why don't I have a Spirit? Tell me that."

"You're not nobody." Koichi said once he was done. "You'll get a Spirit. We just have to find it. I'm sure it won't take long."

He didn't look convinced. "Oh stop wallowing in self-pity." Sophia snapped. "The two of us don't have one either, but you don't see us questioning who we are and why we're here. Your Spirit, as well as ours, will come sooner or later, probably sooner than you think." 'Way sooner than you think...'

* * *

*Is it really bowling shoes? If it is, is that some kind of American/English/Italian joke that I just don't understand?

**Can someone please tell me if this really is what she says?

 _Epic fails:_

Mole Trailmon: Oh, I overrated my last stop. (Oh, I _overate at_ my last stop…. I think…)

Bokomon: Or…up or down? Long or low? Fast or slow? (Or…up or down? _On or off?_ Fast or slow?)

Equally ( _Actually)_ Seriously? How!?

Through wards ( _towards_ ) Yes...again

Leaved ( _left)_ Uh... I'm pretty sure I used the word 'Left' in stories before this already... How did I end up typing 'Leaved'?!


	5. Ladies and Gentlemen The Beetlemon

Hiya guys~~

I'm kind of thinking about changing my account name. So if anyone notices this story being written by someone other than Digilover12, that might be why. I'll keep the Digi part though~ Just so you know.

Hope you enjoy~

 **Disclaimer: I'm a 19 (almost 20, yay birthday~!) year old, currently unemployed girl, living with her parents... Yeeaahh...doubt I own Digimon. I do own Sophia, her Spirits, plot changes and any potential digimon not listed on the Wikia page.**

* * *

As the group continued their journey following the Trailmon tracks, they soon came to a pause on a cliff. Looking in the distance, they saw a Trailmon pass on a far away bridge. They swore it was the same one they'd asked a lift from before, which the giggly 'Whoo whoo!' confirmed.

'It's still ticklish?' Sophia wondered.

As they stood there, the wind suddenly picked up, resulting in a mild sandstorm.

"Hey cool! My ears are full of sand!" Neemon said, chipper as always.

"Yes, and your head is full of rocks." Bokomon replied, as he and the group started walking along the tracks again.

"Wow, I haven't been in a wind this strong since... well...ever." Tommy said.

The others had to agree with him on that one. Or at least, it had been a long while since they last experienced a wind this powerful. While they kept walking, they heard a sudden 'Honk' and some muffled words. They stopped for a moment to look around. The sound came closer and slowly the muffled words became clearer. 'Coming through!'... It took them a moment to realize what could be yelling that, but once they did, they quickly jumped aside. Just in time too. As soon as their feet left the tracks, a black Trailmon with three yellow horns passed by in a hurry.

"That was close!" JP exclaimed, staring at the retreating back of the Trailmon.

"Ooh... Why do things in the digital world always come out of nowhere?" Takuya asked no one in particular.

Bokomon chose to be the one to answer. "What do you mean nowhere? We're walking along train tracks." he stated the obvious.

But Takuya didn't seem to get it as he looked at the digimon. "So?"

"So, where there are train tracks, there's a train. It's kinda like the whole smoke-fire thing." Again, Bokomon explained the obvious.

As he was talking, the group noticed some wind being sucked up by a tube. The tube was connected to a large facility/factory kind of building. Tommy sure seemed impressed by it.

"Welcome to Wind Factory Incorporated." Bokomon exclaimed as the human kids just stared in awe with some confusion mixed in. Though one particular person was struggling to keep her glare hidden...

"Wind Factory Incorporated?" Zoe asked, being more confused than awed.

"A division of Mother Nature Enterprises." Neemon piped up and for once, he wasn't punished for his dumb remark.

The group watched as some digimon passed in front of the gates, saying 'Buzz, two, three, four.' repeatedly. While Bokomon explained about the Kokuwamon, one of the marching digimon tripped over a rock. The others behind him soon followed and in their scare gave the gang a demonstration of their **power surge** attack.

"Well, if there are that many digimon around, then there must be some food around here somewhere." states Bokomon.

That sure pleased the hungry children. "Alright!" exclaimed Takuya, running ahead. "Then let's have us a feast!"

'We could always ask JP for some chocolate. He's probably got 50 bars like...Digi-god knows where.'

"But Takuya, hold on!" JP called after him.

The gogglehead stopped and turned back. "Why? What's up?"

"Listen Taky, as long as you're heading out to get some food, would you mind bringing me an order to go with extra everything?" the blue clad boy asked.

"What? I'm not the Pizzamon. It's every tummy for itself." Takuya answered with a growl. "Last one to fill their plate is a rotten egg."

As the group passed through the gates, the alarm above the door went off. They were stopped by a brown and green creature swinging in front of them, well... more specifically Takuya, but still. It came to a halt in front of the gang, revealing itself to be a Minomon.

"Warning, warning, warning!" it said in a cute, high pitched voice. "A warning from Minomon."

Neemon greeted the small digimon as Bokomon read about the digimon in his book.

"Are you not listening to me?" Minomon grew more annoyed of them not moving. "I said: Warning, warning!"

"They're larva digimon." Bokomon said, reading it out loud from his book.

"No trespassers allowed in the wind factory! No entry! Leave now! Go home! Stop! If you don't obey our warning, we will convince our fierce attack!" Two others appeared next to the first one and continued to yell at them. "You have now been warned! Stop! What we're trying to say is, get out!"

Takuya backed away, bumping into an equally scared JP.

Sophia snorted. "Please, fierce attack? Throwing some cone shaped objects at us? Not to mention only being In-Training lev- Eh!" She cut herself off when she realized she shouldn't know this stuff.

The others were staring at her in disbelief and awe of what they heard. Even the digimon couldn't belief what came out of her mouth.

"How did you-?" Koichi began, but was cut off when he saw the fear in her eyes.

"Please... Later."

Koichi nodded, soon followed by the others reluctantly agreeing. Zoe turned back to the task at hand, the Minomon.

"Excuse me. But we're just here for a tour of the factory." she flawlessly lied.

The Minomon discussed for a moment, before full-heartedly agreeing to show them around.

They walked around the building for a while, just admiring it and seeing how the final touches were made, when they came upon a huge window. Everyone immediately went to look through it, practically pressing their faces to it. On the other side of the glass were the Kokuwamon working on the pieces to create fans.

"This is great." JP said, almost drowned out by the noise of the other room. "I love watching other people work."

"That's not weird at all." Sophia said, giving him a deadpanned look.

JP glared back. "As if you can talk, Minomon expert."

That surprisingly hurt. She knew he didn't know it, but he just made fun of her for being part of a fandom. It completely hit her the wrong way.

Apparently she'd spaced out for a moment, because next thing she knew, JP was running towards the bathrooms. While the others went up ahead a little, Koichi placed a hand on her shoulder, giving her a concerned look.

"I know what you're going to say." she said before Koichi could open his mouth. "And I'm fine. Just... Something JP said made me remember things I'd rather forget."

"I see." Koichi said. "I'm sure he didn't mean for that to happen." He gave a reassuring smile, which she returned. "But also, does something about those Goblimon seem off to you?"

The duo eyed the room behind the glass once more. They were just in time to see one of them slam the club in his hand in a threatening manner.

"I don't like them one bit..." Sophia muttered. "Goblimon aren't really known to be friendly."

"Bokomon said something among those lines." Koichi said. "Should we keep an eye on them?"

Sophia nodded, though wondering what brought this on. She understood herself being suspicious, but why Koichi? Before she could ask, though, Takuya already called down the hall for JP, meaning they were about ready to move on _with_ the Minomon working with the suspected Goblimon.

They followed the larva digimon to the next room. There stood a huge pillar in the center of the room with a wrecking ball plastered to the side. Looking down from the platform they saw hundreds of fans going inside the pillar. The supposed 'High tech, backbone' of the facility. Needless to say...it was kind of a disappointment, even to the digimon companions.

Luckily they soon found themselves in the cafeteria, ready to chow down on some... Batteries? Yup... In front of them were plates with different kinds of batteries.

"So... What exactly do you call this?" Zoe asked, trying to remain polite.

"A 9 volt omelet?" Neemon's answer went completely ignored.

Minomon once again came along. "Eat up everybody~" it said in a sing along voice.

Zoe picked up one of the batteries, staring confused at what to do with it. "They're really lovely batteries, but-"

Minomon cut her off. "Oh you'll love them. It's our chef's special." it said. "Just look at the Kokuwamon~ They can't get enough."

Sophia shoved her plate away. "They can have mine..." she muttered.

"It's really kind of you to share this with us, but-" Koichi's kind words were cut off by JP and Takuya.

"We can't eat this stuff!" they exclaimed in unison, both throwing a battery back on the plate.

"Say, don't you have any sugary treats laying around? You know, for special guests?" Tommy asked Minomon.

"How about a AA pie?" Minomon suggested.

"NO THANKS!"

After scaring their guide Minomon with their yelling, they were led outside by another one. Not that it mattered, the tour was pretty much over anyways.

"I'm worried we might have offended the Minomon." Zoe said once they were outside.

"More then lunch offended us?" Takuya asked.

"Well, they were kind enough to offer us food in the first place." Koichi reminded them.

Sophia sighed. "Just too bad we can't eat batteries..."

"Can we go back to worrying about my stomach?" JP groaned, as Takuya kicked a can, complaining about the batteries.

"Don't you have any more chocolate bars on you?" Sophia asked him.

The others turned to him with hungry eyes, but before anything could be said, their attention was caught by a 'clink' sound. They turned to the source to find the battery Takuya had kicked landed on trail tracks. Looking further, they also saw fenced buildings.

"Hey, what's that?" Zoe asked.

"Is 'A building with a fence around it' too obvious an answer?" Bokomon gave the most obvious of answers.

"You're supposed to be the smart one. You can figure out that answer for yourself." Sophia snarked playfully at him.

The gang decided to go investigate. They ran passed the oblivious Goblimon standing 'guard' and into the 'village'. It was filled with buildings that looked about ready to collapse and not much else. It was obvious to them this was where the Kokuwamon lived.

The elder of the village took them to his home, along with a bunch of other Kokuwamon. He tried to explain what was going on, but no one could make any sense of what he was saying.

A younger Kokuwamon stepped forward to try and explain the situation. "We Kokuwamon lived happily in the forest for generations. We played among the trees and had games of electric tag. Until one day, without warning, the Goblimon attacked! The wind at the Wind Factory had gotten weaker, and the energy for the generator had gotten low. So their leader had us rounded up. They took us all from our beautiful wooded home, and put us to work in the factory."

"Man, that blows." Tommy frowned as Kokuwamon ended the story.

"Yeah and everything seemed so normal when we toured the factory." Zoe responded. The only thing she found a little odd were the Goblimon guards, thinking back on it.

Koichi had his arms crossed, frowning. "I had a feeling things weren't what they seemed to be." he said.

"You too, huh?" JP sounded somberly. "I had a gut feeling something was wrong."

"It's not that." Koichi replied. "I just... could feel something was wrong. I can't explain it."

"So how come they needed your labor in such a modern factory?" Takuya brought their attention back to the situation at hand.

"Our labor is more of a bonus to the Goblimon. It is not the main reason they keep us." Kokuwamon explained to them how the Goblimon kept scaring them, torturing them for the electricity they emit. Banging on the cell doors, pouring water on them to short circuit them and hanging them upside down were but a few ways the Kokuwamon named.

JP gave them a troubled face. "So that was the noise I heard when I came out of the bathroom..." He thought back to the yelling and the whimpering he'd heard back there.

"We're in factory every day. This really isn't much fun for us at all."

"It's low pay and hard work." "And no vacation." some others chimed in as well.

When Tommy innocently asked why they didn't just leave, it caused another argument between Takuya and JP. JP agreed with Tommy, saying 'When the going gets tough, the smart ones take off.', which Takuya did not agree with.

"Are you out of your mind?!" He balled his fists as he glared at JP. "If they take off then the Goblimon will track them down and smash them all into little pieces!"

"Let me guess Taky! You've got some bright idea they should band together and fight back!" JP retorted equally as angry.

Koichi quickly came between them, though keeping his distance just in case. "Please, let's not fight each other."

Though when his method didn't seem to work, Kokuwamon decided to interrupt. "We're not really fighters." he said, instantly shutting them up...somehow. "And as for running away, we cant. Because the Goblimon's security is just too tight."

"Really?" Sophia asked. " 'Cuz we got passed them easily." Remembering how they passed the Goblimon when they went to the Kokuwamon home.

"They most likely _let_ you pass." Kokuwamon told the brunette. The group did not like the sound of that.

"Well, it sounds like fighting and running are your only two options." Takuya went back to the subject of freeing the digimon. When they said that they'd pick the 'running' option if they had to, Takuya continued. "If you run now, you'll never stop running. But if you fight them, you could be free forever." The Kokuwamon still didn't seem very convinced, which Takuya picked up on. "You won't have to do it alone. We'll help you beat them."

Of course, this sparked another argument on JP's side. "Hey! Who died and made you decision guy anyway? What if we don't want any part in this fight, huh?"

"It's called 'Leader', JP." Sophia told him. "And I'm in~"

"So am I!" Zoe chimed in.

"Yeah, when do we start?" Tommy asked.

"I'm willing to try, even without a Spirit." Unknowingly, Koichi hit the point JP was worrying about.

Every Kokuwamon stood up, happily agreeing with the Spirit holders, even the elder. They excitedly chattered a bit about what they were going to do. They were cut short when a high pitched scream overlapped their chatter.

Sophia, hoping to make the break in easier with the addition of 2 more Spiritless humans, decided to get the Minomon spy before it warned its boss. "Guys. We've got a spy."

"This is your last warning! Let go! I _will_ unleash my attack you-" he was cut off by a piece of wood stuffed in his mouth.

"Can you tie him down?" Takuya asked, though sounding more like a command. "And let's make sure he can't use that string to escape."

Sophia nodded as she, together with Zoe, tied the Minomon with his own hair string and a rope the Kokuwamon brought. After that, they got to work. The Kokuwamon managed to get them a map, which Takuya cleverly used. Using the skills he got from making attack plans for his army men to his advantage, he made the, in his eyes, perfect plan.

Takuya gathered the team around the table. "Okay everyone, listen up. We're gonna do this tonight." He looked around to see if anyone had any objections before he continued. "First, Zoe will cause a distraction right here." He had his finger on the image of the front gate. "She's gonna try to get as many Goblimon as possible over to the gate. That is, if you think you can handle it."

Zoe ignored the mocking, doubting look he shot at her. "No sweat." she told him with confidence.

"Then the rest of us will move into the factory and wait for the right moment to attack. And when the signal comes, we all hit the same target." The backbone the Minomon had shown. "Destroy the assembly line and that's it! So, whadda say? Are ya with me?"

A chorus of "Affirmative!" rang through the building as every adult Kokuwamon raised their hand in agreement.

With the plan all thought out and agreed on, the gang talked a bit about it afterwards. Like how Takuya pointed out they knew nothing about the Goblimon leader, the place of the Spiritless kids as also unclear. This set JP on edge.

"I'm not going." He said with a determined voice. It shocked the others to hear he wouldn't want to help. "Why don't you guys take care of this one and just holler if you need me?" Not that they would need him. They can turn into digimon after all.

"What are you saying JP?" Takuya was just about done with the older boy's attitude. Since arriving at this place he'd been getting on his nerves.

"I'm saying that you guys are on your own." JP turned to face the newly elected leader. "You don't need me! You probably don't even want me! I can't become digimon like you guys!" There. His feelings were finally out. "I'm just tall, sweet and cuddly..."

"Man, I will never understand what your problem is." Takuya complained right back. "Koichi and Sophia can't become digimon either, but they're still coming. Even if they can't help!"

"My problem is you." JP's frown deepened as he leaned closer to Takuya. "Trying to make me do what I don't want to!"

"Oh yeah?!"

"CUT IT OUT!" Sophia suddenly yelled. Her hands were covering her ears as her eyes were shut tight.

Seeing how the fighting was effecting her, Zoe took the brunette girl outside for a breather. While the boys stayed and talked with the Kokuwamon, the girls found a calm spot behind another building.

"So, what happened back there?" Zoe asked as soon as Sophia had calmed down.

Sophia shrugged. "Not sure. All I know is that I just hate yelling and verbal fighting." she said. "It just makes me panic."

"Is that why you disappeared to Breezy Village back then?" Zoe asked. She remembered that, when she and Takuya were fighting, Sophia was suddenly gone.

Sophia laughed nervously. "Hehe... Sorry."

The blonde just shook her head. "Think we should head back?"

The other nodded. They got back just in time to see JP storm out, grumbling to himself. Guess there was another disagreement... While the girls stared at where he went, Sophia made the decision to follow him. She followed him up a hill where he was found staring at the sunset, deep in thought.

"JP?" her voice snapped him out of his thoughts. "You okay?"

He frowned at her, thinking Takuya send her to convince him again. "I'm still not going. You can't make me."

She shook her head. "I'm not here for that." she said. "Are you scared because you don't have a Spirit?" she asked bluntly. "Because it's okay to be scared."

"Says you, who's probably not afraid of anything." JP grumbled out loud.

Sophia's eyebrow rose. "That's what you think? I'm flattered you think I'm brave but-" She cut herself short for a nervous chuckle. "I'm on the brink of an anxiety attack just thinking about what we're about to do." JP stared at her as if he didn't believe her. "I'm not joking. I'm already breaking a sweat and my stomach is in a knot. When I get back to the house I'll probably break down completely."

JP still didn't speak. He turned back to the sunset and ignored her further attempts. Sophia sighed and went back to the Kokuwamon home.

"Your turn little guy." she whispered to a young Kokuwamon that was hiding behind some bushes. "Good luck."

Now all there was left to do was wait until nightfall. When it finally did fall a couple hours later it was, as Takuya put it, go time. The Kokuwamon got into position as the team split up. Zoe went back to the gate while the others, minus JP, went to the factory.

" **EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION!"**

" **AGUNIMON!"**

" **KAZEMON!"**

" **KUMAMON!"**

The other 4 watched as Kazemon blew up the entire front gate, scared away more Minomon and lured a bunch of Goblimon to her location.

When the group of ogre digimon passed Agunimon led the team into the building. The humans of the group were feeling more and more anxious. Sure the Kokuwamon managed to get them some makeshift weapons in the form of lead pipes, but still... They were up against digimon...with clubs..and special attacks!

But they had no time to worry about it. They were in. Goblimon were coming at them left and right, all needing to be taken care of. A group of Kokuwamon tackled a group of Goblimon. Some others used **power surge** to take care of them, while some used it to blow up a bunch of machines. Koichi and Sophia worked together to knock out some Goblimon, and Kumamon froze a whole bunch ironically behind bars.

After the Goblimon had been taken care of, they went further into the factory until they reached the door to the assembly line. One of the Kokuwamon took care of the lock and the door flew open instantly. They ran inside, ready to destroy the place, only to find the place littered with Goblimon!

Another digimon, looking like a huge praying mantis, lowered down on a crane, laughing. "Well, look what we have here." he jumped down from the crane, towering over the warriors as he stared them down.

"H-how?" Sophia quivered. "We captured the Minomon! I thought he was gonna tell about our plan! How did you discover?!"

Snimon snickered. "You thought I wouldn't send another one? Especially after the first didn't return? Just how incompetent do you think I am?!" He finished this by slashing his sickle at the girl.

She dove out of the way just in time. Agunimon demanded she and Koichi hide before they got killed. Kumamon protected them as they ran towards the door they'd come from. That's where Sophia finally broke down.

Koichi convinced Kumamon they'd be fine with the Kokuwamon and to join Agunimon and the others in the fight. After he left he turned to find Sophia curled into a ball, shaking and having trouble breathing.

"Sophia?" Koichi slowly approached. He recognized the some symptoms of a panic attack thanks to a friend of his, so he knew he had to be careful around her. He crouched down next to her, seeing she seemed to have no trouble with this. "Sophia, please talk to me." He had to find the root of the panic before he could help.

"T-the Minomon- we captured it- this shouldn't- why are there- why is everything- this is wrong- not right-"

This wasn't helping... He looked back towards the others. Kumamon, Bokomon and Neemon were forced in a corner by the Goblimon, separated from Agunimon. Speaking of Agunimon, he was having trouble against Snimon. His attacks weren't working at all, and the digimon was pushing him further and further away from Kumamon.

On the other end of the hallway he also heard sounds. Oh no... Did the Goblimon break free? Luckily for them, it was just JP and some more Kokuwamon.

He paused a moment before the duo. "What's going on here?"

"The guys seem to be on the losing side. Snimon is too strong." Koichi said, thinking he meant the battle.

But JP wasn't really focused on that as he watched the quivering mess in front of him. "So she really couldn't handle it, huh?"

"L-like you can h-handle an overg-grown mantis." She weakly glared at him, her attack slowly subsiding. "Go ah-head, we'll catch u-up."

JP nodded, putting on his brave face again and storming into battle. He ran passed Agunimon's battle, which seemed to be going his way when he threw Snimon against the tower. Unfortunately, while charging up his attack, Snimon recovered and attacked with his **twin sickle**. It was powerful enough to send Agunimon flying into the wall.

JP had seen just about enough of this. He eyed the crane in front of him, finding a great use in it. He asked the Kokuwamon for a lift to the crane's cabin. As soon as he got in, he started working it. He had no idea how exactly to work it, but luckily there were pictures by the handles. He pulled the right one down, turning the crane to the right so it slammed into Snimon, who made a smack into the wall and got his hands stuck.

"JP!" Kumamon cheered, happy to see he did come in the end.

"Quick thinking, buddy." Agunimon complimented him. He suddenly noticed movement from his peripheral vision and looked a little more down.

That movement was Snimon getting one of his sickles loose. He used his **twin sickle** attack again, this time aiming for the boy in the crane. Agunimon shouted his name in worry as the whole thing fell apart. Karma ensued as part of the crane fell right onto Snimon.

But that was not where the warriors and other digimon were aiming their attention at. It was the Spirit that had been revealed to them, hidden in the lower part of a pillar.

"Is that-?" Kumamon asked.

"A Spirit!" Agunimon confirmed.

"Who's is that?" Koichi asked.

"It's JP's." Sophia answered.

The 2 warriors were startled by their sudden appearance. They hadn't even heard them coming, because they were too focused on the Spirit and worrying about JP.

"How do you know it's his?" Agunimon questioned her.

Sophia pointed at the Spirit. "See the colors? Blue and yellow, just like JP's D-Tector." she reasoned.

While this conversation happened, JP was being lowered to the ground by the Kokuwamon. When he set foot on the ground, he took out said blue and yellow D-Tector and had it take in the Spirit.

" **EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION! …BEETLEMON!"**

The others stared in awe as the Fractal Code cocoon disappeared and out came Beetlemon. "Look! JP Spirit Evolved!"

'Brilliant deduction Agunimon... What's next? Telling us the sky is blue?'

"Yes! To Beetlemon, the warrior of thunder." Bokomon read from his book.

Meanwhile down on the lower level, Beetlemon was ecstatic. "I-I can't believe it! I'm Beetlemon!" He finally Spirit Evolved! He wasn't useless anymore! Those facts made him so happy, he was literally having a victory dance. Because that's what it was, a personal victory. "I did it! Let's get this party started!" he laughed.

"Dance while you can, monkey-boy! Soon you will taste the fury of Snimon!" Snimon sneered at the newly evolved warrior.

"The only thing I wanna taste is a cheeseburger with a side of fries!" Beetlemon countered, thinking it would sound cool and heroic. It didn't.

"Can he stop thinking with his stomach for once?" Sophia moaned from up above.

Finally the ultimate battle between Snimon and Beetlemon began. Bug vs bug. They charged at one another, Beetlemon tricking the other into passing him so he could give him a well-deserved kick in the back. Snimon was angry now. He turned around to cut him with his hands, only to get punched near his throat.

Now he had enough. He raised his blades, bringing them down on Beetlemon's shoulders. But it did nothing, Beetlemon's armor was too tough. Instead the warrior of thunder drove Snimon into a wall again by his horn.

"Beetlemon 1, green guy nothing! Woohoo!" he was thoroughly enjoying this. He showed his little victory dance again, before jumping out of the way of Snimon's charge.

" **ULTIMATE TWIN SICKLE!"** Snimon slashed his blades four times, releasing pink/red energy. It hit the warrior head on, but had absolutely no effect.

Beetlemon charged his own attack, flying down to hit Snimon with it. But Snimon didn't care. He went right for Beetlemon, whose hands were now sparking with electricity.

"I call for the power of-" he brought his hands down for the kill. **"THUNDER FIST!"**

He slammed his fists into Snimon's head, who in turn fell back against a wall with his data becoming visible.

"Where once your power was used for evil, let it now be used for good!" Beetlemon took the D-Tector, ready to scan Snimon. **"FRACTAL CODE DIGITIZE!"**

The praying mantis digimon was scanned and turned back into a digi-egg, which flew off who-knows-where. The team was about to celebrate their victory when an explosion caught them off guard. The factory was gonna blow! On Agunimon's orders, though unnecessary in this situation, they ran for their lives. Within a matter of seconds the place was totaled, only pieces of debris scattered around. The Kokuwamon could finally return home.

Morning came way too soon for the young heroes, who'd spend the remainder of the night at one of the houses. The place was out of the explosions reach, thankfully. But their lack of sleep was soon forgotten by the nice feeling they got from hearing the Kokuwamon cheering joyfully.

"I was right to believe in you." the young Kokuwamon told JP.

Another sudden sandstorm came by, carrying off the Minomon, including the one tied up in his own string. Everybody just laughed at the sight.

"Well, that leaves Koichi's and Soph's Spirits." Takuya said, turning to the aforementioned two. "I wonder which we'll find first."

"Let's go then!" Sophia exclaimed excitedly. "I don't think we'll find our Spirit here. Besides, we still have to go to the Forest Terminal."

"Right, let's go!" Takuya exclaimed, taking the lead again.

Meanwhile at the back, Sophia let out a sigh of relief. Everyone seemed to have forgotten her slip up about the Minomon. 'I really need to watch what I say.'

"Sophia?" Koichi called her name softly. "Now that everything has been taken care of, could you tell how you knew so much about Minomon?"

Her face dropped. 'Did he read my mind or something?!' "Well... I guess it's easier to tell you since you know my situation..." she mumbled. "Okay... Remember what I told you about being from another world?" Koichi nodded. "Well... In that world digimon is an anime." she explained hesitantly. "And it branched into video games, card games and a whole bunch of information on the internet."*

Koichi blinked. "A-are we-?"

Realizing her mistake, she shook her head. "No, we're not." she lied.

"So you also don't know about the other warriors, then?"

She shook her head again. "Only the ones we've met so far." Not a complete lie, since a lot seemed different then she remembered. "Please don't tell the others."

"I won't." Koichi promised. "But you will have to tell them someday."

And how she dreaded that day.

* * *

I hope my description of a panic attack was accurate. I do get them myself, but I get really odd ones, where I don't actually feel panicked. I get literally all the symptoms of a panic attack, except the panic, someone explain? And if I get them while still in bed (which is almost always) I can actually delay them until I get up xD.

*I know technically Digimon was a video-game first, with their tamagochi's, but I don't count them as actual _digimon_ games. It became digimon, sure, but when they were tamagochi's, they weren't digimon. I hope that makes sense.

Epic fails:

Putted _(Put)_

"Geez, they are only in-training their only attack is bubble blow." _(About Minomon)_ So apparently they don't know Bubble Blow... Their attacks are Pinecone and Worm Barrier... Who knew?

Cutted _(Cut)_

Bend _(Band)_

Haler _(Holler)_

Playbacked _(lip synced)_ Hehe... Playback is what we say in the Netherlands. It sounded English enough back then ^^"


	6. A Molehill Out Of a Mountain

I've finally gotten Pokemon Ultra Sun! Now just play and hope I don't forget to write~

Hiya guys~!

So yeah, I've gotten a new video game. Thanks to which I keep forgetting to write my stories... I have a major addiction to Pokemon ^^" Let's just hope I won't forget this month and manage my deadline. If not...nothing will happen, but I will beat myself up -_-

Enjoy~

 **Disclaimer: Don't own it, never gonna own it, that's all. I only own Sophia, her Spirits, one of which will finally be revealed, changes to the story and any other character not mentioned on the wiki page.**

* * *

After another day or so of traveling, the warriors arrived at another town. It was a marketplace sort of town. They entered a restaurant, because honestly... They. Were. Starving! It had been about 2 days since their last meal, because the Floramon were kind enough to serve everyone Gram soup a la Floramon, and even that wasn't a lot. Even Takuya and Tommy had some of that (revenge scheme of Zoe, because they wouldn't believe she Spirit evolved).

Unfortunately, like at any restaurant, they had to pay. As soon as Zoe pulled out her Yen, they were kicked out by a Kongoumon worker.

"Please, come back." he said in a nice voice, before going over to madly annoyed. "When you're not just a bunch of deadbeats!"

"But we're really hungry!" Zoe argued. "And we do have money." She pulled out her money again, showing it to the armor digimon. "See? Right here." But Kongoumon shut the door in her face without looking at it a second time.

"I wonder why that digimon doesn't accept our money..." Koichi said softly, putting his own Yen back in his pocket.

"Probably because it's Yen." Sophia reasoned. "They probably have digi-money, or use American dollars if I can trust the anime." she told Koichi, being soft enough that the others didn't hear. "That's probably why Kongoumon didn't see this as money."

"How do you know?"

Startled, Sophia turned around. Tommy had been listening to her and Koichi's conversation.

"I...um...w-wha- err..."

"And how did you know that digimon's name?" Tommy asked.

Nervously, Sophia started fiddling with her sleeves and jean's pockets. "W-well... I-I just... L-Later okay, Tommy?"

She suddenly felt something in her pocket. Thinking it to be a good distraction, she pulled it out. It was 10 Euro. It _was_ a perfect distraction.

"Hey Bokomon!" she went to the gnome digimon. "Is this worth anything?" she handed it to him. "And if it's not, please don't throw it in the air."

Takuya looked at her funny, wondering why she'd ask that. "Why would your money by worth anything if ours isn't?" he asked.

"Because it's Euro, not Yen." Sophia said. "I guess I forgot to trade it for Yen..." A lie, but no one needed to know.

"I'm sorry, but this isn't our kind of money either." Bokomon said, handing it back.

"Sophia knew about the digimon and why our money isn't worth anything." Tommy said, shattering the calm-ish mood.

"TOMMY!" Sophia screeched.

But too late of course. Their hunger forgotten for a moment, they turned to the brunette girl for an explanation. When she didn't say anything, they began questioning her.

"Is that true?" Zoe asked.

Knowing it was impossible to hide, especially with her panicked screech earlier, she carefully nodded.

"How?" Takuya questioned. "Bokomon didn't even do his usual explaining. How could you know about that digimon?"

She remained silent.

"Now that I think about it, didn't she also know about that Minomon?" JP added his own thoughts.

"I'm from a different dimension!" she blurted out all of a sudden. Everyone, except for Koichi, stared like her as if she'd gone insane. "J-Just drop it and let's move on." she mumbled, heading straight for Koichi. He'd already helped her through one panic attack, so he could help again if it came to it.

The mood was still very awkward. In their awkwardness, they looked around the marketplace for something to distract them.

A sign in the distance caught JP's eye. "Hey, you guys. Take a look at that." he pointed to the sign as he read what was on it. "Heroes wanted? All your meals for free?! Rock solid!"

They all ran towards the sign, their hunger suddenly returning. After almost knocking over Bokomon and Neemon, they came face to face with 3 snail-like digimon. They were looking a little down in the dumps, even when they arrived.

"Ehh..." Takuya wasn't sure what to say to them. Obviously they weren't expecting them to be heroes. "We're heroes?" He tried.

Their faces immediately lit up. They told the group to follow them which, in their hunger induced state, they did. The digimon introduced themselves as KaratsukiNumemon, and told the group that the trouble they needed help with was at their home, so they'd have to take them there first. The gang followed the snail-digimon to a wooded area and hid behind some bushes.

So here they were now. Hidden behind in the bushes, in a cart. Now they just had to wait for a Trailmon to pass to take them to the KaratsukiNumemon home. Luckily the waiting didn't take long. Before even 5 minutes had passed, a loud honk was heard in the distance.

"Wish we knew what these guys wanted us to do." Takuya wondered out loud. The digimon didn't tell much aside from telling them to stay in the cart. After that they just left.

"Relax. I'm sure they have a good plan." Zoe reassured him.

Right after she finished talking the cart was pulled from the bushes. It startled everyone inside, as they hadn't seen the KaratsukiNumemon drop onto the Trailmon with the ropes in hand... Did they even have hands? But anyways, those ropes were attached to the cart, so when they dropped onto the speeding Trailmon, they took the cart with them.

"I hope all their plans aren't as crazy as this one." Takuya muttered to the group.

"So, what did you need our help with?" Koichi asked the KaratsukiNumemon as soon as they got back into the cart after tying the ropes to the Trailmon.

The digimon explained. "One day a mean creature called Grumbemon attacked." the middle one said. "We're peaceful, we can't fight him by ourselves."

"He demanded our mountain's Fractal Code." the one on the left continued. "We told him we don't even know where it is. But he thinks we're lying, so that's why we need you heroes."

Of course they agreed to help. Even though they weren't sure what they needed help with. Did they just have to fight this Grumblemon? No problem, Takuya figured.

"Guys? I'm not sure I understand this." At least someone voiced their doubts. "Why can't he just take the Fractal Code?" Zoe asked.

"We already talked about this." Bokomon said, going into his explanatory mode. "As I said, the source of all energy in the digital world is data. Everything. Mountains, rivers, villages. Everything that's solid matter is made up of energy. So it has Fractal Code. Only in some places the code is out in the open and in some places it's hidden." he finished his explanation. "Try to remember that."

"I'm afraid there's more of our story to tell." the middle KaratsukiNumemon spoke again. "Grumblemon took all of our daughters* to trade for the mountain's Fractal Code."

"That's horrible!" Tommy said.

"Man. Guys can sure be jerks sometimes." Zoe said, obviously not thinking women can be jerks as well. "So that's why you wanted our help? To save your daughters?"

The digimon nodded.

"Just leave everything to us." JP said, suddenly way more open for helping others.

Everyone eyed Sophia, who hadn't said a word since they left the marketplace. She noticed them staring and raised a questioning eyebrow.

When they still didn't say anything, she reluctantly spoke. "What?"

A little at a loss for what to say, Takuya rubbed the back of his head. "Well..." He caught the eyes of JP and Zoe before speaking again, more confidently. "You know about digimon, right? Anything on Grumblemon we should know about?"

'Other then the fact he's a Legendary Warrior, corrupted by Cherubimon, is the warrior of earth and completely in his element on the mountain and the fact he's got a Beast Spirit that's way stronger then our Human Spirits? Not much.' Sophia fought a smirk back. "I don't know that digimon." she lied.

The human warriors looked crestfallen at the lack of information. JP tried to lighten the mood a little by reminding them about the chow they got as reward, but Neemon butchered _that_ mood.

Looking up ahead, there was a big drop followed by a few loop-de-loops, a steep as all hell rail _up the mountain_ , and a criss-cross of impossible-to-ride rails.

"Hold on... You want us to ride through that?" Takuya asked gesturing to the rough road. "In this?!" He gestured again, now to the _buckle-less_ cart they were in. Panic! "ARE YOU SNAILS INSANE?!"

Of course there was nothing they could do about this. All they could do was hold onto the cart for dear life as the Trailmon took them through the loops and up the steep mountain. After what seemed like forever, it all luckily came to an end... when the cart came loose from the tracks... The cart ended up sideways on a fence, humans tumbling out and grasping the fence.

"That wasn't so bad." Zoe said, trying to remain optimistic about the nightmare of a ride they just went through.

Unfortunately JP didn't seem to think so. "What's your definition of bad?!"

"Falling off of this cliff!"

"Cliff?!"

It really didn't help their panic that they ended up facing down the cliff. They scrambled to get up and started looking around for the KaratsukiNumemon.

"Come on heroes." was heard from up top. They looked up, finding the digimon clinging to the mountain. They were on the edge of a sideways village. "What are you all waiting for?"

"Are you kidding me?!" JP exclaimed, mildly annoyed by them. "Sticking to the side of a mountain may be fun for you guys, but one slip and we're graveled pancakes!"

To emphasize they looked down, gripping the fence even harder. It was terrifying! They decided together it would be best to look up instead of down, so they focused on the KaratsukiNumemon again.

"Just how do you propose we get up to you?" Zoe asked. "We can't cling to walls."

With that extra bit of information, the snail-digimon lowered a wood and rope ladder, which almost hit Zoe and Takuya. They told them to climb it and that it'd be 'fun'. Yeah... One polite 'thank you' on Koichi's part later, they were climbing the rope ladder. First Takuya, then Tommy, followed by Koichi, Bokomon, Neemon and Sophia, who thanked the lord she was wearing jeans.

Finally JP and Zoe climbed the ladder, in that order, the former now sporting a red hand print on his cheek. They climbed up a few more ladders until they reached a white house. One of the KaratsukiNumemon was already waiting by the door.

"You're almost there." the digimon told them.

Takuya was glad, wanting nothing more than standing on solid ground, so he climbed a bit faster. Tommy noticed a shadow by the window, wondering who it was. He also noticed the weapon the shadow seemed to be holding and quickly yelled at Takuya to wait. Little too late...

The shadow moved and the stick it held came down (or up depending on how you view it) on Takuya. The others saw him tensing up, before his upper body went limp for a second. That was most likely him getting hit.

"Hey! What was that for?!" he yelled, facing whatever hit him. He froze when he saw who it was. "Huh? _You're_ here?"

Koji struck a defensive pose with his make shift kendo stick. " _You're_ the people these guys found to help out?" he asked, not believing his bad luck to run into them **again**.

The other warriors finally decided to poke their heads through the door opening as well. They were getting sick of Takuya just standing there. Though, they were admittedly also very curious who he was talking to... Upon seeing it was Koji, Koichi froze, though nobody noticed.

"Yeah, none of us could find any food either." Takuya admitted in defeat.

"Hey, don't lump me in with you guys!" Koji exclaimed defensively. He turned to one of the KaratsukiNumemon. "These kids aren't gonna be able to help you out at all."

"Kids? I'm a teenager, thank you very much!" Sophia exclaimed jokingly. "Besides, we're pretty much the same age, except for Tommy, so what does that make you?" She ignored the glare he send her way and just answered with a childish tongue out of mouth and wink.

Of course Takuya and Koji got into the first of their soon-to-be-infamous fights. Luckily the elder KaratsukiNumemon intervened before things escalated.

"Gentlemen, please." He bowed to the group before continuing. "My thanks to all of you for coming to help." he said in an accent that was almost too hard to understand. "And now it's time to eat."

"Alright! Time to chow down!"

In their excitement, the group let go of the walls, which caused gravity to pull them down. Koji got out of the way in time, unfazed, like he expected them to fall way before they actually did. After brushing themselves off, they followed the KaratsukiNumemon to a different room, where they could eat.

Expecting a fancy meal, the group was a little (a lot) disappointed to find a pile of different colored lettuce heads.

"Is that what I think it is?" Takuya asked, staring at the pile of food uncomfortably.

"I don't know." JP said. "Looks like rabbit food."

Zoe, having enough of their complaints, grabbed one. "Well, at least rabbits get to eat." she said. "Here goes nothing." Deciding to be the brave one of the group, she took a bite. After chewing a bit, her eyes snapped open in surprise. "Molto bono! Dig in!" she exclaimed. "Tastes like steak."

Surprised at her reaction, the others took a head as well. They all looked up in surprise. It wasn't steak, but still held familiar tastes.

"Mine tastes like chicken." JP said.

Mine's like a potato." Tommy said.

"Mine's just like asparagus." Takuya said, to which everyone had a disgusted reaction. "I like asparagus."

Sophia, who'd broken off a small piece instead of taking a big bite, held hers out. "Anyone want to trade? I've got fish." she said, holding a hand to her mouth.

Koichi nodded. "I can trade." he said. "If you like cauliflower that is."

They ate in silence for a while, aside from Takuya's small conversation with elder KaratsukiNumemon about Koji. It wasn't an uncomfortable silence, but soon after finishing became one as they all eyed Sophia. She, noticing the stares, went a little closer to Koichi, fiddling with her sleeves.

"So..." Takuya tried to start a conversation. "Mind explaining what you meant earlier today? About... different dimensions?"

Taking a deep breath, she nodded, making sure Koji was listening too. "L-like I said... I'm from a different dimension." she began. "I'm...not sure how I got here. I just remember a white light coming from my computer before noticing the view from my window was different." she explained. "The only reason I know this is a different dimension, is because digimon is well known where I'm from. It's an anime with multiple video games and card games, there's also lots to find online about them." she rambled a bit until she noticed the odd stares everyone gave her. "But yeah... It was never real there like it is here...so...that's why..."

The others nodded, understanding where she was going. Sure, they found the whole thing strange and hard to believe. But evidence was in her knowledge about Minomon back then. Koji, having heard everything, didn't believe a word of course. Just a stupid girl with some stupid fantasy to get some attention.

Time came to make a plan to free the KaratsukiNumemon daughters. The digimon provided them with a map of the mountains on Koji's request.

"Grumblemon has the captives in a cave." he begrudgingly informed the others. He really didn't want to work with them, but he'd have to... "It's right about... Here." He pointed to the middle mountain, just above the town. "We'll have to get in and out quickly."

The KaratsukiNumemon's mood fell, being reminded of their kidnapped daughters.

"Just relax." JP said, trying to cheer them up. Just those words seemed to work in lifting their spirits, which in turn fed JP's overconfidence. "Have no fear, leave everything to us... Legendary Warriors!"

Instead of cheering like he'd expected, the KaratsukiNumemon looked at them in shock and backed off. This action confused everyone in the group. The Legendary Warriors were good guys, why did they look so frightened?

"You mean all of you...are Legendary Warriors?" the elder asked, shaking in fear.

"Yeah!" Takuya exclaimed proudly. "Well... Except for Koichi and Sophia over there." He pointed to the two of them.

The digimon gathered together in a corner of the room and began discussing in hushed voices. This made the group a little uncomfortable, but most of them didn't see it as too strange, especially after Bokomon's explanation. The only ones who had trouble believing his theory were Koji, for obvious reasons, Sophia (again, obvious reasons) and Koichi, who slowly started sensing bad intentions from them.

Finally the snail-digimon seemed done discussing whatever they were discussing and turned back to the warriors. "It's time to go to bed." the elder told them, suddenly seeming uncomfortable talking to them.

But Takuya didn't agree. He stood up, striking what he deemed a heroic pose. "And I say it's time for us to rescue the girls."

"No, no." the elder kept insisting. "Get some rest first and then you can tackle the job in the morning."

Finally they agreed, though reluctantly still. Nighttime fell soon, finally allowing Sophia to think over everything that happened in peace. Last night they had all been too tired, and the night before nothing too out of the ordinary happened to think about.

She went to sit by the window, or what she thought to be a window, with a notebook in hand. She always had that and a pen on her in case of spontaneous drawing and story ideas.

'Let's see...' she wrote down her thoughts. 'Not much oddities happened so far...' She'd already written down most of the changes from the first two days. 'Koichi felt the Goblimon weren't trustworthy...' she looked at the sleeping, soon-to-be warrior of darkness. 'How could he feel that? What would you _feel_ about someone that would make them untrustworthy in the first place?' she thought back on the Goblimon. 'They were smirking and beating the club into their hands... Maybe it was that? Their appearance?' she shook her head. 'No... They can't really change facial expressions anyways... And that beating only happened once.'

She decided to pocket the question for later and went on with other changes from what she knew. Though she came up drawing a blank. Most of the other changes were triggered either by herself or Koichi. With a sigh, she pocketed her notebook and went back to the improvised leaf-bed and fell asleep.

She woke up to the sound of yelling. Groggily she sat up, looking around for the source. When she found nothing that would make that sound, she lay back to go to sleep again. With a start, she sat back up. There was nothing to make the sound! No people around her aside from Koichi!

"Koichi!" she yelled hushed. "Koichi, wake up!" she shook him by the shoulder until he opened his eyes.

"Wha- what's wrong?" he asked, still half-asleep, rubbing his eyes to emphasize how tired he still was.

Choosing to ignore the cuteness of it, Sophia explained. "The others are gone!" That sure woke Koichi, who immediately looked around in a panic.

After finding nothing, they climbed up to the living room/kitchen area, where they had lunch earlier, but still found nothing. Not even the KaratsukiNumemon were around.

"It's like the whole place just got abandoned." Sophia muttered. "Do you think they're outside?"

Koichi nodded, hesitantly. "M-maybe they went behind the KaratsukiNumemon's back and went out to save the daughters?" he suggested. "We don't have Spirits, so maybe they wanted to leave us out of it."

Sophia reluctantly agreed, knowing how far from the truth that was. They went to the closest opening to look outside and above, hopeful to get a glance of a fight, or an attack they were familiar with.

When nothing happened, Sophia began to look around, trying to find where the guys were. Koichi caught onto her plan and joined in.

With a gasp, Koichi pointed down. "There they are!"

Sophia followed his gaze down the mountain. There they were. Being held by ropes on one of those tiny fences they used to climb up to the house. They were all awake and talking to the KaratsukiNumemon elder. The mountain hadn't been blown yet, so Grumblemon hadn't arrived yet, thankfully.

"Come on! We need to get down there." Sophia exclaimed, undoing the strings that held the rope ladder rolled up.

The duo climbed down to the first fence, which just held a couple of spectators. Deciding their luck with those guys, the duo started asking them questions.

"Why are you holding our friends hostage?" Sophia asked them.

The digimon looked up in surprise at their entrance. "They're Legendary Warriors! That's why!"

"That doesn't make any sense." Koichi told them. "What does being Legendary Warriors have to do with you capturing them?"

The KaratsukiNumemon glared at the duo as they answered their questions. "Don't play dumb!" one of the women yelled. "You're their friends. Surely they told you about their allegiance with Grumblemon!"

"We have no allegiance with him!" Sophia exclaimed, while Koichi stared at them in shock of what he heard. "The only allies we have are each other and a handful of digimon we met so far."

"Right..." Another KaratsukiNumemon stared at them unconvinced. "We may have spared you two from the same fate that will befall your friends, but don't think we'll trust you any more then them!" He pointed at them in a threatening manner. "Get them!"

The snail-digimon jumped at them from all possible directions, pinning them to the fence. At the same time, part of the mountain next to the warriors exploded outwards.

Someone or something could be heard moving around in the tunnel it exposed, and it was getting closer! Soon after, out walked a gnome-like digimon with a long pixie hat, armor, a bunch of odd markings and a huge nose. What caught everyone off guard, was the symbol of a Legendary Warrior in the middle of his chest armor.

"He's also a- ….A Legendary Warrior?!" Takuya exclaimed in surprise.

Luckily for them, Grumblemon didn't take notice of the fact he just exposed everyone as his enemies. His thoughts were more focused on why there were humans danging from ropes and when he'd get his Fractal Code.

"Grumblemon!" Elder KaratsukiNumemon called the evil warrior's attention away from the humans. "If you want to save your allies, give us back our daughters now!"

He and the other KaratsukiNumemon now held knives to the rope, which JP nicely pointed out, which in turn freaked out everyone else as well.

"What so!" Grumblemon called to them, mispronouncing 'so what'. "Me no care what happen to weak human thing." He almost sounded amused saying that.

The KaratsukiNumemon eyed each other for a moment before deciding to bring the knives even closer to the ropes. This send the humans back into a panic, including the ones not in the ropes.

"I knew something was off..." Koichi muttered. Sophia looked up in surprise and confusion. Catching her glance, Koichi explained. "It's just like with the Goblimon. I felt some...odd feeling. It was just telling me something wasn't right with these digimon." he explained. "But it's a lot less. The Goblimon I felt just...pure malice. The only one I feel that from now is Grumblemon, but stronger... More evil."

'Feeling malice? Evil?' Sophia wondered.

"Wait! You mean you really don't care about them?" Elder KaratsukiNumemon asked the evil warrior. "But they're Legendary Warriors as well!"

Grumblemon's previous unimpressed look swiftly changed to a surprised one. "Whaa-? These weaklings be Legendary Warriors?!" Again, his face changed to one of pure evil scheming. "Me thinks somebody got their hands of some Spirits and took them when they shouldn't have~!" he taunted playfully, which just sounded disturbing. "Now I'm to put my hands on you and take them all right back!"

He stuck his hands in the ground, pulling out a huge hammer. When he prepared to swing, the KaratsukiNumemon looked confused. They pulled the knives away from the ropes.

"Wait, what's going on?" Elder asked. "You mean you aren't allies?"

"That's what we've been trying to tell you!" Tommy cried.

"And I said it loud and clear!" Sophia added to it.

Grumblemon finally took a swing at the kids. Luckily they quickly managed to pull their feet up. The hammer slammed into the mountain, missing the humans by not much. The tremble startled the KaratsukiNumemon so much they retreated, dropping their knives. Koji took this chance to get himself free. He kicked off the wall just in time, launching himself towards where the knife fell. Still spinning, it cut through his ropes, freeing the lone-wolf.

" **EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION! …LOBOMON!"**

Speaking of wolf... Lobomon quickly spun around, grabbing the rope he'd just been cut free from, using it to swing towards Grumblemon. Grumblemon, a little too slow with his reflexes, was met with 2 legs to the face, mid-swing. Lobomon somehow managed to kick him upwards into a building where they continued to duel it out, out of sight from everyone else.

Meanwhile, the KaratsukiNumemon returned to the human children to help. They pulled them up an untied them, few of them even personally brought Koichi and Sophia to the lower fence. The elder didn't waste time apologizing to the warriors. It was cut short by Takuya, claiming they didn't have time for this now. A series of noises caught their attention. Lobomon and Grumblemon were falling from the now destroyed house right into another one passed the fence.

The warriors broke through the wall, fell through the house and broke the other wall as well. Lobomon, now moving closer to the losing side, clung to the wall for dear life. Underneath was nothing but hard and pointy rocks few miles below him. Grumblemon smirked, seeing the mighty warrior of light I such a position. He lifted his foot, stomping it painfully on Lobomon's right hand. As soon as he'd let go, the warrior of earth repeated the action on his right hand.

Thankfully, Lobomon didn't immediately let go this time. He stubbornly kept holding on. But everyone could see he would last much longer.

"We have to Spirit Evolve too." Takuya said as calmly as he could at the moment. He actually sounded like a responsible leader for a second.

" **EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION! …AGUNIMON!"**

" **EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION! …BEETLEMON!"**

" **EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION! …KAZEMON!"**

" **EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION! …KUMAMON!"**

They made a quick plan. Agunimon and Beetlemon would keep Grumblemon busy, while Kazemon flew inside with Kumamon to help Lobomon. With a nod, they set the plan in motion. Agunimon got a lift from Beetlemon to the 'roof-wall'. Just in time too. Grumblemon was about to hammer Lobomon's face in. Beetlemom grabbed the weapon in time to prevent that and took him for a fly up to where Agunimon was.

With Grumblemon out of the way, Kazemon picked up Kumamon and flew inside through the door. The fairy-digimon held out her hand to the wolf-digimon. After a bit of stubborn arguing, he took it and made a new plan to follow up Takuya's. Kazemon and Kumamon would free the daughters of the KaratsukiNumemon, while Lobomon helped out Agunimon and Beetlemon.

While the ice and wind warriors left for the chambers, Lobomon joined the other duo, who now had lost their opponent. The lone-wolf was none too happy about that, but what else is new?

Meanwhile, there were the Spiritless humans, just watching everything that went on in frustration. Both so badly wished they had Spirits to help their friends, even the pacifist Koichi. If it meant helping his brother and preventing others from getting hurt, he'd fight. Reluctantly, sure, but he would!

Both he and Sophia were desperately looking at their D-Tectors. Maybe one of their Spirits were close-by? Please let one of their Spirits be close-by!

Sophia clutched her D-Tector. 'Please...! Spirit, if you're close... Give a sign.' she begged. Not knowing where the Spirits of darkness or...whatever hers was, was frustrating. 'I want to help!'

A soft buzzing caught her attention. She looked over at Koichi, sure it'd be his. But the look in his eyes as he looked at her told her otherwise. It wasn't his D-Tector... it was hers! She sprung up from the fence, almost losing her balance.

"My Spirit..." she gasped. She looked around, trying to find a point where it may be.

' _Center left, gold.'_

"Did you say something Koichi?" Sophia asked.

Koichi met her eyes, looking confused. "I didn't say anything." he said. "No one did." He gestured to the surrounding KaratsukiNumemon.

She rose an eyebrow. "But-"

' _Center left, gold.'_

There it was again! But no one moved their mouth. Then who... She glanced at her D-Tector. Was it Ophanimon? It didn't sound like her... It was then that she noticed something. The middle button on her D-Tector was golden-yellow.

'Center left, gold... Center left button... Gold button?'

Trying her luck, she pressed them in that order. A map appeared on her D-Tector with a purple dot in the middle and another white one pointing somewhere else. Confusion must have been written on her face as multiple KaratsukiNumemon offered to take her to where it was pointing. Luckily the fence they were on was all around where they needed to go.

It didn't take long before the duo and digimon arrived at the point the map was leading them to. But there was nothing there... The human duo looked again, trying to pinpoint where exactly it was pointing to.

"Oh!" Koichi got it first. The smallest of gaps was between the rocks, with the faintest light coming from it. "It's over here!"

"Good eye." Together they pulled the rocks apart, revealing the small statue of an unknown Spirit. 'It's mine... It's actually mine... I'm actually a part of the team!' She held out her arm with the D-Tector, pointing it at the Spirit. "Alright! It's Spirit time!"

… But nothing happened. Confused, she tried pressing buttons. She even called out 'Spirit, come to me!' like Tommy did. Nothing seemed to work. This was odd... This was a new Spirit... It _had_ to be hers...right? She moved to grab it, and suddenly all she could see was white.

" _What the-?! Where am I?" A dark silhouette appeared in front of her. "Who are you?"_

" _I am the Spirit of sound." It said in a voice unlike her own. Usually the Spirit's voice sounded like the human-wielder._

" _Spirit of sound…" Sophia muttered. So that's what her Spirit was. "I-I need your-"_

 _The silhouette cut her off. "I know why you need me. But why should I help?" it asked. "You know how the 'story' ends without your assistance. Why bother? What reason do you have?"_

 _Sophia was stunned. This didn't happen to the others, did it? Well... They did seem out of it before accepting their Spirits... Maybe it did?_

" _Well?" the silhouette seemed to get impatient. "What's your answer?"_

 _She clenched her fists, eyes snapped shut towards the ground. "Because I **don't** know what's gonna happen! Not anymore!" she exclaimed. _

_She thought back to the time Koji was fighting the Pagumon. There was originally no Pagumon coming straight for his head. And it would've ended badly if she and Koichi hadn't reacted so quickly. Speaking of Koichi, he was physically in the digital world now, and with the group. That was a big change as well. Not to mention the 2 extra Warriors and the small change in history. And of course **her** whole presence here._

" _I wanna help. I **have** to help! They're my friends!" Her eyes pointed their gaze to the digimon. "Maybe I don't have a good reason to help, but you don't have a good reason not to! You're a warrior!" she called out. "If I don't help- if **we** don't help- and something happens that I don't recall happening, we're all screwed!" she exclaimed. "So, please. Let me help to save your world!"_

 _The figure seemed to smile to her. "Very valid reason." It said. "I will grand you my powers. Use them wisely, and good luck, descended of Suzumi."_

" _What?"_

Before she could question it any further, she was back on the mountain fence. Of course Koichi and the KaratsukiNumemon were still with her.

"Sophia? Are you alright?" the bluenet asked.

The girl nodded. "Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well..." Koichi was struggling to find the words to explain it. "You kind of... zoned out for a minute. And your eyes had these odd purple...waves in them." he tried explaining the best he could. "Almost like soundwaves."

'Figures.' "I'm fine, promise." She looked down at her D-Tector, now seeing the Spirit present inside of it. Her smile quickly turned into a smirk. "Always wanted to do this!" she said to herself as a ring of Fractal Code appeared around her hand. **"EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION!... SONAMON!"**

The newly evolved warrior checked herself over, taking in every detail of her new body. She now had short, teal colored hair which was kept out of her eyes with a purple headband of sorts, which held a red gem and the kanji of sound. She wore a violet shirt with long sleeves that had flower-like endings. There were 2 microphones strapped to her wrists which seemed able to detach. Her shirt had a teal strap around the chest with 2 speakers on it, and a white part by the neck.

She wore a darker purple skirt, which almost seemed ripped apart at the end, separated by a white belt. Underneath she wore light blue tights and white boots. On her knees were another set of speakers, held there by white straps. Of course, one part not to miss were the wings. They were shaped like G-keys, and purple and pink in color, and though she couldn't see it, her eyes were grey.

"Woah..." She took a breather, then suddenly burst into joyful laughter. "This is awesome!" Deciding to try out her wings, she fluttered up close to the fence. It seemed easy, which was odd... But she didn't complain. "Come on, Koichi!"

Sonamon took off towards the fight, Koichi running on the fence just behind her. He was holding onto a KaratsukiNumemon with multiple surrounding him, so it was pretty save to run. They arrived just in time to see Grumblemon falling down the mountain.

"But where are the captives?" Lobomon asked Kazemon and Kumamon, who also just joined the group.

Kumamon pointed to another mountain just in front of him. "There!" he answered Lobomon's question.

The others followed his gaze, which fell on a mountain not far away. It was connected to the one they were close to by rope. They watched as fathers, mothers and daughters (and possibly sons) were reunited with each other, talking, laughing, hugging and just being together.

"Boy, it sure must be nice to get back to your family." Beetlemon said, which struck a cord with everyone. They did just leave their family to go on this adventure. It would be nice to get back to them. "Hey." The little moment of peace didn't take long, as something already happened. "What's that?"

A wall of data had suddenly appeared where part of the mountain had just been.

"It must be the mountain's Fractal Code!" Kazemon concluded.

Sonamon decided to let her presence be known to the team. "That means we've got to protect it from Grumblemon." she said.

Everyone turned to face the new, yet familiar, voice. "And just who are you?" Lobomon asked, suspicious of the new digimon.

"I'm Sonamon." she said, not waiting for Bokomon to finish flipping through his book. "Legendary Warrior of sound. Though... I guess Sophia sounds more familiar, doesn't it?" she asked with a playful wink.

"Sophia?"

"Yup~" She looked up at Bokomon, who was still leafing through the pages of his book. "What's wrong, Bokomon? Bummed because you didn't get to say it this time?"

"Will you stop that?!"

If the team wasn't convinced earlier, they were now. Sophia just laughed at Bokomon's usual rage fit, completely forgetting her previous statement to protect the mountains Fractal Code. Her attention was brought back to it once she saw Grumblemon's ugly face pop up from the side of the mountain.

"Oh! Look like I found what I want anyway." he said in his usual broken English. The data field glowed briefly, as if responding to his comment. "And thank you. I never find without you." he snickered, pulling something from behind his back. "Now get rid you!"

He pulled the item into view of everyone else. To their shock, it appeared to be another Spirit.

" **EXECUTE! BEAST SPIRIT EVOLUTION!…GIGASMON!"**

To their even bigger shock, he could actually use it! He was now bigger, bulkier, and seemed stronger.

The warrior jumped up, slowly beginning to spin with his arms wide out. **"QUAGMIRE** **TWISTER!"**

He launched himself at the three flying digimon, who just barely got out of the way. Ignoring them, he made his way to the three other warriors holding onto the ladder. He succeeded in knocking them off the ladder, sending them falling down. Luckily for the good guys, Kumamon was a quick thinker.

"Hey, grab onto me!" he told the older boys, as he changed into a formless figure. He stuck himself to the mountain and changed again into a more solid and pointy ice form. **"FROZEN TUNDRA!"**

Lobomon and Agunimon thankfully were able to grab onto him. Beetlemon went in for a direct attack, but was quickly send flying by the same attack. The thunder warrior broke through the fence that held Bokomon and Neemon. The two digimon companions were hurled into the air before falling to gravity, but Kazemon and Beetlemon quickly caught them.

Gigasmon went on with his attack towards another part of the mountain. Usually you'd be happy when the enemy moves on, but this was an exception. Because he was heading straight for Koichi. Not wasting a second, Sonamon flew to him, catching him off the fence just before Gigasmon destroyed it. After making sure he was safe and placing him on Kumamon, she decided to try one of her attacks.

" **MICRO ROCKETS!"** the microphones on her wrists detached from the holder, flying straight to Gigasmon.

Unfortunately, the attack did absolutely nothing and automatically returned. The evil warrior finally quit his **quagmire twister** and landed back on the mountain.

He slid back into Grumblemon and looked down at the others. "That it?" he asked mockingly. "That best you do with your Spirit? That pathetic. Even make pathetic look good!" He mocked them some more before, again, shifting into his Beast form. "You joke!"

"Wait a minute! What's going on?" Agunimon, as well as the rest, were utterly confused. How did he evolve like that?

"Now I take Fractal Code in name of Cherubimon!" Gigasmon shouted out to the world.

Before anyone could even think of stopping him, he ate the mountain's Fractal Code, leaving a big, gaping hole in the middle of it. The mountain began to rumble and shake violently. The cables connecting it to the other mountains snapped, and the smaller mountains fell away from the middle one. The violent shaking got too bad for Kumamon to hold on and he, along with Agunimon, Lobomon and Koichi fell.

Rocks fell left and right. A large one struck Sonamon in the back, more specifically her wings. She fell in the same hole the guys fell into. Last thing the four of them saw, was the mountain being covered in Fractal Code and disappearing before it became too dark to see.

* * *

*Yeah, I know in the dub it's women, but I chose to go for daughters like in the Japanese version, because in the episode you see KaratsukiNumemon with long eyelashes like all female digimon seem to have. So, not all women were taken~

Leaches _(ropes)_ I think I meant leashes?

"Sticking on the side of a wall may be fun for you guys, but one slip and we're scrambled pancakes." (Sticking _to_ the side of a _mountain_ may be - one slip and we're _graveled_ pancakes.)

"Hey don't count me in with you guys," ("Hey, don't _lump_ me in with you guys.")

Robes _(ropes)_ Imagine if they _were_ tied up in robes...


	7. Island Of Misfit Boys

Hiya guys~

Hope you all had a nice Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Sinterklaas (for all my fellow Dutch peeps), or whatever other holiday you celebrate.

The new year is coming~ Time for new years resolutions... or not of course. I usually don't do new years resolutions, because I know I'll fail them, but ths year I'm hoping for something new.

My new years resolution is being less anxious. Because I'm anxious about... well... a lot. Result of 8-10 years of bullying, unfortunately ^^".

But I'm getting there. Thanks to all the wonderful people who viewed, favorited and followed my stories, and left comments. They might not mean a lot to most people, but to me, they mean the world. It's really encouraging, because it means my work is viewed, that it's liked. And I appreciate them, even those of all those years ago.

So thank you.

And who knows, maybe one day I'll feel confident enough to post more of my stories. Because I've got a bunch, but I'm always too anxious to post them. Hell, it still surprises me to this day I was able to post the 3 stories I have on here. So...hopefully.

Well, Happy New Years everyone~! Make it a great year for yourselves as much as you can.

Anyway, I've been keeping you for long enough. Hope you enjoy this chapter.

 **Disclaimer: Another year of not owning digimon or any of its characters gone by. I do still own Sophia, Sonamon, her Beast Spirit, minor changes in the plot and any digimon that is not mentioned on the wiki page.**

* * *

How long had it been since they fell? It felt like hours had passed since entering this tunnel. The group of Takuya, Koji, Koichi, Tommy and Sophia had since de-digivolved already, running too low on energy to stay in their warrior forms.

"Man! Is this ever gonna end?!" Takuya screeched what was on everyone's mind.

Not long after voicing his thoughts, a light appeared at the end of the tunnel. And while usually 'following the light at the end of the tunnel' would be bad, the 5 of them couldn't be happier. That was, until they realized the tunnel ended with a drop. They went down screaming. If they hadn't been so tired out from staying in their Spirit Evolution for too long, they would've evolved right then and there.

Luckily for them, not that they noticed it, the landing was soft...and oddly bouncy. To their surprise, they landed in the worlds biggest ball pit. Seriously the thing was fit for a giant! After pushing some of the balls aside, they took a better look at their surroundings.

"Is this a big playground?" Takuya asked, seeing the Disney-like castle in the distance. "And if it is, what needs a playground this big?"

"A big digimon?" Was Sophia's sarcastic suggestion.

Tommy's head dropped onto one of the balls. "We're gonna find out, aren't we?"

"Of course..." Takuya complained in the same begrudging tone.

They exited the ball pit with some difficulty and began exploring the place. It was just like Takuya said, a giant playground. There were giant building blocks covering the place as well as hedges, which could've been some kind of maze.

"Keep your eyes peeled for Zoe and the guys." Takuya instructed.

'Like we didn't know to do that already.' Sophia thought. 'Wait... did he just name Zoe separately from the others? Oooh~~ What makes her special?'

"Yeah, but everything is so big. How are we supposed to find anything?" Koichi's voice snapped her out of her thoughts.

"Like I said, just keep your eyes peeled." Takuya repeated himself.

Sophia blinked. Did she zone out? ...Oops... They heard an odd sound coming from somewhere above. Looking up, they found...something flying.

"Hey, maybe that flying guy has seen them." Takuya suggested.

Well, it was their only lead to go on soo... Of course Tommy, being the kid he is, excitedly ran after it. And Takuya, being the big brother _he_ was ran after his little brother figure. The other three followed soon. The five of them arrived at a toy littered place. Oddly enough, these toys were small enough or the humans to play with.

"Check it out! This is awesome!" Tommy fell on his knees in the grass to play with the toys.

Takuya looked around for the robot guy, unable to find him. "Hey, where'd he go?" he asked, while Koji scolded Tommy.

Tommy pretty much ignored Koji's demands to not sit down. He picked up one of the cars and placed it on the racetrack. It began driving the course automatically, much to Tommy's enjoyment.

"What a baby." Koji complained, which earned him a smack on the head from the brunette girl in the group.

"I am not!" Tommy yelled in defense. "These are just cool toys."

Koji ignored him and instead turned to Sophia. "Why did you hit me?"

"Lighten up Koji." She completely ignored his question. "What's wrong with having a bit up fun after a fight?"

"But this probably isn't the best time to be playing." Takuya said, watching Sophia walk over to a basketball and started bouncing it over to Koichi as some sort of game.

"Aw, come on!" Tommy cried. "When else can we play with all these neat toys?

Takuya's eyes suddenly caught something familiar. Next to his feet was the robot from earlier. "Is this the flying robot?" he asked himself as he picked it up.

It was way smaller then he thought it would be. He fumbled around with the thing, trying to see if these toys really were all that. There was a button on his arm that he could press, so no brainer, he did. The arm launched itself and landed quite a distance away.

"Hey, that is cool!" he exclaimed. "Super-robot punch."

Koji stared in disbelief at the goggle-headed brunet. "Not you too!"

Takuya fumbled with it again, embarrassed he'd been caught. "Uhh... Well, I-I guess not..." he mumbled. "Put down those stupid toys." he snapped at the playing duo, or trio if you count Koichi reluctantly bouncing the basketball back to Sophia.

Tommy sighed sadly, putting down the toy car. Sophia however, threw the ball at Takuya's head.

"Fine, **mom**." she snapped.

Koji crossed his arms in annoyance. "Geez, and here I thought the kid was the biggest baby."

"Will you shut up?" Sophia glared at him. "You two wanted to go so badly, so let's go already."

So they left the small playground. Koichi tried to calm the playful duo by reasoning they had to search for Zoe and JP. It helped a bit, but not enough to keep them distracted from the toys.

Tommy found a machine that made helium balloons and went to check that out, while Sophia found a cute pig plushy behind the dinosaur statue. Koichi kept an eye on the two, making sure they didn't stray from Takuya and Koji too much.

"Here Tommy, I think he likes you." Sophia pushed the plushy in his face softly, making kissy noises.

Tommy laughed, but took the pig anyways. "Thanks, haha." he pressed the different colored ear, which made the pig move and oink.

"Hey, look." Takuya called attention to him. "We decided this isn't the time to play around, right?"

"Actually you decided." Sophia argued. Tommy just pouted and refused to look at them, especially after Takuya's 'don't cry' comment.

Koichi tried to break them up, seeing a fight coming from miles away, but he was interrupted by his brother's cold words.

"That baby has to grow up sometime."

Sophia stood up from her crouched position, staring the lone-wolf down. "That was unnecessary!" she yelled at him. "Tommy's just a kid."

"Who said I was talking about him?" Koji just stared right back.

"Don't be so mean!" Takuya exclaimed. "They haven't done anything."

"Whatever." Losing interest in this conversation, he walked passed Takuya heading god-knows where.

"No! You can't just say 'Whatever'! Now listen up!" Takuya turned to face Koji's back. "I know you're not used to heaving friends, but you're part of a team now. So you'd better show some support!"

Koji was still not interested in continuing this conversation. "Great idea." he mocked. "Let's support the useless kid right up until the point where we all die because of his stupidity." Now that was dark...

"No wonder no ones likes you."

This finally snapped Koji. "What do you know?!"

"Cut it out!" Sophia yelled. The duo stopped glaring daggers at each other to stare at her.

She was covering her ears, but still glaring at them. It was a little ineffective due to the tears just in the corner of her eyes. Takuya's face softened as he recalled something similar happening at the Wind Factory not too long ago.

Calming down, Sophia removed her hands from her ears, but didn't seize her angry stare. "You're the ones calling us kids, telling us we need to grow up, while you're the ones bickering like children!" She called them off. "Act your age." she mocked Koji with his own words.

Not seeing the fun in it, he snapped right back. " _I_ have to act _my_ age?! What about you?! You claim to be a teenager, a year or 2 older then us, but _you're_ the one playing with stupid toys and acting like a toddler! Try following your own advice!"

"See the irony in that phrase?" Sophia smirked, pretending that didn't hurt. "But I can't..." she muttered, hoping he wouldn't hear.

"Why not?" Unfortunately he did hear. "Because you just _are_ a baby?"

Now it was her turn to glare at him again. It was a full on glare party! "Because I have autism! That's why!" came out. "I can try and try as much as I like, but I can't act my own age! And believe me, I tried! I tried really fricking hard!" she was full on ranting by now, ignoring the faces of shock around her. "I had to completely change myself for years just to _try_ and fit in! Never talk or I'd say something childish, never play with others because I was bound to do something only toddlers do. I hated it!" Finally she looked up from the ground to face Koji with tears in her eyes. When had she begun looking down? "I don't wanna act my age, because that's not me... And it sure doesn't make me happy..."*

No one said a word, not even Koji. What even do you say to that? It was unanimously decided to just move on. Though before they could make a move, a sound from a little ways back stopped them.

"Hey, it's a train!" Tommy yelled excitedly, apparently having forgotten the earlier situation.

It was a train with multiple carts behind it. Without arguments, the four older kids followed the younger to the train. As they got closer, they noticed...it was a mini-toy train. Koji groaned in annoyance, but took place on the first cart anyways. Takuya and Tommy happily sat on the locomotive, while Koichi took the one after his brother, and Sophia had the one after his.

They had a little bit of light banter, to relief the tension of earlier. It worked luckily. Soon enough at least three of them were laughing or at least chuckling a little.

About a minute after that, Tommy noticed something moving from the corner of his eye. "Wow, that's wild, Takuya." he said, seeing the yellow digimon. "It's a giant walking teddy-bear."

Takuya followed Tommy's eyes. Sure enough, there was a digimon. An idea struck him. "Hey, maybe he knows how to get to Forest Terminal."

All in agreement, they jumped off the train, Koji doing so happily, and ran towards the digimon. Takuya called out to it, hoping to get his attention, which he did. Only...it didn't seem like good attention.

The digimon ran up to them at the same speed. This made the warrior kids pause in confusion, but not for too long. The digimon grabbed Takuya by the shoulders as soon as he arrived, and threw the boy on the ground hard.

"I am still undefeated!" he exclaimed to the sky. He picked up the boy ans struck another fighting pose. "Now we wrestle for the championship of the world."

Everyone was shocked into silence. This digimon was going to fight them?! They couldn't Spirit Evolve yet! They were still too tired, and Koichi didn't even have his Spirit yet!

"E-eh... Excuse me, but w-we were just wonderi-" Before Koichi could finish his question, he was pulled away by Takuya, who also grabbed Tommy in the process.

"Are you crazy?! It'll crush us!" he screamed.

Koichi followed with a sigh. They could've possibly resolved this by just asking the digimon... But of course no one listened to him.

Unbeknownst to him, Sophia had the same thought. "Guys, there was noting to be afraid o-"

She was cut off when she, as well as Tommy and Koichi were pulled onto a set of stairs and into a rocking ship attraction. She waited until the bear passed, before sprinting out of it, not wanting to stay a second longer on that ship.

The boys only dared to peek up over the walls of the ship.

"That bear is dangerous." Koji commented.

Well, Takuya sure could agree on that. "And you didn't even get thrown down by him." He rubbed the sore spot on his stomach where he hit the floor to emphasize.

Tommy ignored it, though. "Well, I don't know. He seemed kinda fun to me."

"Fun? Are you nuts?!" Takuya exclaimed, looking at the younger boy as if he was nut- oh yeah.

"But guys, he's not-" Sophia was cut off once again when the ship started moving. 'Oh yeah...That happened. Oops...'

She waited until the ride was over, which luckily didn't take too long. Unfortunately, Tommy did sick himself on the ride. The four boys got off of that ship fast to avoid another ride.

"You gonna be okay, kid?" Takuya asked Tommy, who wasn't looking too good.

Tommy denied feeling sick though. He'd already been the cause of arguments too much. Unfortunately, even when he tried to not cause another argument, he did. Takuya and Koji now started fighting because Takuya offered a piggy-back ride to him.

Noticing Tommy becoming more uncomfortable by the second, Koichi took his hand and led him away from between the arguing duo.

He stopped when they reached Sophia. "Are you still feeling sick?" he asked Tommy. He shook his head. "Whats wrong then?"

"It's my fault they keep fighting... isn't it?" He wanted to hear from someone else. Was it really his fault?

Koichi and Sophia, to his surprise, both shook their heads. "It's not you Tommy." Sophia said. "I can't explain what it is, but it's not you, or any of us."

The young boy still had some doubts about that, but dropped it for the moment. After waiting out the argument, they decided to check out the house not far for people. And considering the house looked like a cake, there probably weren't any. Turns out, that feeling was right. The building was nothing but a candy store, but no cake like the building suggested.

'Ha! The cake is a lie!' Sophia thought gleefully.

"Now I know what it's like to be a kid in a candy store!" Takuya exclaimed, looking around the various types of candy, ice creams and juices.

"And it's the best thing ever!" Tommy exclaimed happily, the argument of earlier shoved in the back of his mind.

He ran over to the cotton candy stand and took a yellow one, munching on it in delight. Sophia went over to it as well, taking a pink one.

"Never had one, can't hurt to try right?" she muttered to herself. She broke a small piece off it and put it in her mouth. She squealed when is vanished as soon as it hit her tongue, but it was good~**

Takuya watched them being so carefree and made a decision. "I guess we can take a little time to have a snack, right?"

Those were the magic words for Tommy and Sophia to start grabbing cotton candy sticks for everyone. Tommy took a pink one for Takuya and gave Koji a blue one, while Sophia handed Koichi a blue one as well. Koichi looked at Koji, then to the cotton candy he held, and then gave Sophia an amused and knowing smile. She just replied with a wink and giggle.

"We do not have time to sit around here, stuffing our faces with candy!" Koji argued.

"Why not?" Sophia asked. "In case you haven't noticed, we haven't eaten for almost a day now." as on cue, Koji's stomach growled. "And your stomach agrees."

"We have to find a way to get to the Forest Terminal." the argument was now aimed at her. "We're not out having fun at a carnival or something. You understand?" He then noticed both she and the other boys were stuffing their faces with the cotton candy, completely ignoring what he just said! "Are you listening to me?!" Takuya ignored him in favor of the snack, while Sophia shook her head. "Man you're infuriating!"

Sophia looked up in confusion. "Thanks... I'll search that word in a dictionary later."*** 'Along with perilous...'

"What are we supposed to do? We're floating on an island!" Takuya snapped back at him.

"There's another example of why you'll never be a good leader, you just give up!" Koji retorted. "It's like you don't even wanna help your friends at all. I mean, take a look at what you're doing right now." He gestured to the half eaten cotton candy in Takuya's hands.

A look of distress found its way back on Tommy's face. Another act of _his_ caused another argument.

"I don't see you coming up with any ideas." Takuya stated as calmly as he could, which didn't say much right now.

"At least I'm not just eating. We need to think about the other Legendary Warriors!"

"Guys, stop it!" Sophia yelled. "Arguing is getting us nowhere!" She took a calming breath before continuing. She looked at Koji first. "I know what you're thinking. What if the other Legendary Warriors are evil too? But it case you haven't noticed, right now none of us can Spirit Evolve." she pointed out.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Koji asked, still annoyed.

This time Koichi stepped up. "I think she means we need to think about more direct problems first." he said. "I don't have a Spirit and if I'm right, you guys are too low on energy to Spirit Evolve. Who's going to protect us now?"

Sophia nodded. "Sure the Legendary Warriors are something we need to focus on, but later. And like Takuya said, this is a floating island. Unless one of the 'possibly-evil-Legendary-Warriors' can fly, we're pretty safe here."

"Safe?! Have you forgotten that giant digimon?!" Both Koji and Takuya exclaimed.

Sophia growled. "Well if you'd let me finish earlier! It's a Monzaemon, a friendly digimon whose only goal is to play and make others happy. He only has one real attack, which catches you in a heart and makes you feel good! The other 'attacks' are hugs!" Seeing the disbelieve in their eyes made her storm out of the building. "Forget it, get trapped in his 'Heart Attack' for all I care."

Once outside, she slid down the wall, throwing her arms around her knees and burying her head in them.

"I believe you..."

Her head shot up as she looked to her right. Tommy stood there, with Koichi not far behind.

"You really have to stop running away from problems." the older boy said.

Sophia chuckled dryly. "Sorry, force of habit." She placed her head back on her knees and resumed staring at nothing. "So... What's going on in there now?"

Koichi sighed as he slid down the wall as well, quickly followed by Tommy. "They went back to fighting about the Legendary Warriors." he replied a little too casually. Bad sign if you're already getting used to your team fighting each other.

"Of course they did..."

They sat in comfortable silence for a while, waiting for the shouting not far from them to stop. Of course when sounds of an actual fight started, Koichi and Sophia were quick to intervene. After that, they left the building, though in uncomfortable silence this time. Tommy unfortunately made the mistake of asking if anyone wanted to talk.

This sparked another argument between the leader and lone-wolf. With those two arguing and the other two older kids trying to silence it, nobody noticed the black-furred digimon approaching. At least, not until it snatched Tommy.

"Uh, guys? Heeelp!" he cried as the bear carried him away from his friends.

"It's that bear again!" Takuya cried, chasing after it.

"No, it's different now." Koji observed, seeing the fur was black instead of yellow. "It's all funky."

No one wasted any more time and ran after it. Koichi eyed Sophia, who was looking conflicted about something. Figuring it may have something to do with the digimon, he placed a hand on her shoulder. When she looked up, he gave a reassuring smile, hoping to convince her to tell whatever she knew about it.

After a short while, she nodded. "Be careful guys! That's WaruMonzaemon, a corrupt version of the digimon we saw earlier." she said. "His 'Heartbreak Attack' pretty much does what it says and can immobilize you."

"Sure, sure." Takuya brushed her off in his panic. "Hey, you big fuzzy creep! Give our friend back!"

The girl huffed. Fine, if they won't listen, let them feel. As on cue, WaruMonzaemon stopped and turned around. He put his paw on his chest, pulling away quickly.

" **HEARTBREAK ATTACK!"** A black heart appeared where he'd placed his paw and went flying towards its target. In this case, Takuya.

The black heart hit him straight in his chest. Nothing seemed to happen for a few seconds, but then he went down on his knees.

"What's the point?" he asked, all depressed all of a sudden. "We're never gonna catch him." Koji and Koichi eyed him with confused and concerned looks when he suddenly burst into tears.

"Why are you crying? What happened?" Koji asked in a kind of concerned voice?

"I just feel really sad." he answered.

" **HEARTBREAK ATTACK!"**

Another heart came flying at them, this time aimed at Sophia. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending who you are, she side stepped it in time and it hit Koji instead. While he went down, crying on the floor like Takuya, WaruMonzaemon send another two black hearts their way before running off. He didn't even have time to make sure they hit their targets. Koichi was hit by the heart, but Sophia managed to burst hers with her pencil before it hit.

"Koichi, are you okay?"

"I'm- I'm fine..." Koichi stared down at his hands in confusion, like they held the answer. "I don't feel sad or anything. How-?"

"That attack is so not fair!" Takuya exclaimed. Apparently the effect of the attack had already worn out. "And how come you guys are okay?"

"Because I actually listen to myself and don't let myself get hit by something _literally_ called **heart** _ **break**_ **attack**!" she snapped. "And Koichi did get hit, he just didn't feel the effect becaus- ssssssoome reason?" 'It's _so_ because he's the warrior of darkness! I bet 10 bucks on it!'

"Come on, we have to rescue Tommy." Koichi said, walking the direction WaruMonzaemon ran off in.

After a long while of just walking around, searching for the digimon, it was starting to look hopeless. No sign of Tommy, WaruMonzaemon or any other digimon for that matter, and way too many buildings to potentially keep someone captured.

"Why do evil things always run faster than normal things?" Takuya asked, getting sick of finding nothing.

'Riiiight... A bunch of 8-13 years olds in a different world who can turn into monsters of said world and are destined to defeat the evil monsters of that world... Totally normal, bro.'

"I don't see it anywhere." Koji replied, ignoring the stupidity of the goggle-headed leader.

"This is our fault." Takuya said. "Cause we were fighting." Koji turned to look at him, pretty much ready for another snarky comeback. "This really reminds me of the time I lost my little brother at the amusement park." his voice seemed to go softer, laced with past-worry. "I've never been so worried in my life until now."

Sophia nodded, relating. "Yeah... Reminds me of when I lost my little sister. I mean, she was still in the neighborhood and with friends, but we didn't know." she choke down a laugh. "I would not let my dad leave to search until he agreed to take me with him."

"I know, little kids are always getting in the way." Koji said, clearly _not_ knowing what they were talking about.

Takuya frowned and turned around to face the bandana wearing boy. "That's not what we meant! Man! You must be the most selfish kid in the whole world! Two worlds!" he went on a lecture-rant against Koji. "We have a responsibility to take care of Tommy, because he's younger than us. Don't you take care of your own brothers and sisters?"

"I don't know my brother...Happy now?"

Koji's words shook Koichi to the core. He believed he has a brother? He actually believed the dream? Koichi couldn't be happier to hear that.

"Huh?" Takuya was confused. How can you not know your brother?

"We were separated when we were young, that's all I know. I was raised alone, so I don't know anything about brothers." He actually sounded really heartbroken over it.

"Well, why don't you just...imagine that Tommy is your little brother?" Takuya suggested, thinking of a way to maybe make him feel better. "And think what it would be like for a little kid to be alone and afraid."

An image of a toddler, crying in his bed flashed before him, one of a broken night-light following.

"Imagine that you could keep him from feeling that way."

Another image flashed before his eyes. This time one where he, the same age as the little boy, was hugging the crying kid. His brother? If that's true then... He did it once, he'll do it again!

With a determined look now on his face, he took off, leaving the rest of the group behind him. He heard the footsteps behind him, but right now he couldn't care less. Imagine he was Tommy's brother? Fine. He will.

They hadn't run for very long before they came across a familiar face. Or, well...It came across them really. It was the flying toy robot from earlier! It stopped mid-air in front of them, pointing to the left.

"Hey, flying robot!" Takuya called out to it. "We're looking for a little kid and a big bear-"

"WaruMonzaemon!" Sophia interrupted.

"Right. Have you seen them?"

The toy nodded and suddenly took off in the direction it came from, which just so happened to be the way he pointed. He took the group to the castle they noticed while they were climbing out of the ball pit earlier. Why wasn't this their first guess again? The boys and girl looked around the outside of the castle, looking through windows for a glimpse of the young boy.

There! In the lower tower! They could just barely make out the pumpkin hat Tommy wears.

"Hey, Tommy!" Takuya yelled as loud as he could.

"Down here!" Koji joined in.

"Tommy! We're here!" Sophia called out.

"Look outside!" Koichi chimed in as well.

There was no reaction. Not even a flinch. Tommy couldn't hear them, they must be too far away. They'd have to go in. At least, that's what Koji said. After thanking the toy and getting scolded by Koji, they ran for the entrance.

A sudden static/beeping noise stopped them halfway on the bridge. It was the noise they now recognized as coming from the D-Tector. All eyes fell on the only person who didn't have a Spirit yet. Koichi. He looked shocked, yet ecstatic.

Before he could pull out his D-Tector to know for sure, however, a movement from the castle entrance caught everyone's eyes. Two ShadowToyAgumon stood by the gate, glaring daggers at the young kids. Beneath them, the bridge lifted up as it was reeled in to block the gate, and the humans fell into the water below.

With no warning and no time to draw a breath before going under, they were pretty much hopeless. Their arms and legs weren't working with them to bring them above water. Right when they couldn't hold their breath for much longer, rescue appeared. The digimon took a hold of Takuya and Koji, then noticed the two others. He motioned to his scarf, making a grabbing motion with one of his paws. Koichi and Sophia sluggishly grabbed a hold of it, and he took off again. He brought them to an underground cave, dragging the breathless kids up shore.

"Once again, I, Pandamon, have foiled my fiendish foes, the sinister ShadowToyAgumon." The digimon, now identifying himself as Pandamon, said as if he were in some old-school Japanese action movie.

"Yeah, great, thanks." Koji snarked in between panting. "So you saved us, just so you could bring us down here and hurt us yourself."

Takuya, Koichi and Sophia, who'd just caught their breath, looked at him horrified. What thoughts to have!

Takuya decided to say something about it. "Buddy, why are you so paranoid?!" he exclaimed a little shocked. He turned to Pandamon. "Don't pay any attention to him. Thanks for helping us. Pandamon?" He questioned the name, seeing if he heard it right.

"Pandamon the protector." Was the digimon's answer. "Welcome weary warriors to my secret lair, the Panda cave." He ignored Takuya's doubtful 'ok' and continued. "I've hidden here since that black-hearted ShadowToyAgumon started hating that chum, Cherubimon."

That stopped the group from whatever they were doing. "Cherubimon..." Takuya muttered. Of course it'd be him.

"Because of Cherubimon's diabolical dogma, those misguided miscreants plan to go to the real world, and reap their revenge on the children who stopped playing with them. The rest of us toys just want to play with kids." Pandamon explained.

"Like Monzaemon?" Sophia asked, receiving a nod from Pandamon as answer.

"That's so sad..." Takuya said.

Seeing as they now gotten enough strength back to walk, Pandamon took them through the cave. Before anything, Koichi remembered his D-Tector and quickly pulled it out. Nothing... No signal. No static sound. No beeping. No Spirit.

Sophia noticed he'd stopped and caught him staring at his blank D-Tector. 'Right... He had a Spirit signal earlier, didn't he?'

She couldn't imagine how he felt right now. Being the last to get your Spirit. Needing to hide while everyone around you fought for their and your life. Pretty much being the only useless person in your group.

"Koichi?" He looked up, pulled from pretty much the same thoughts the girl had. "Don't worry, okay? Your Spirit is close, we won't leave the island until we find it."

He others turned, having heard what she said. Koji wanted to protest, but for some reason kept his mouth shut when he saw Koichi's sad face.

"She's right." Takuya agreed. "Besides, it didn't start up until we got to the castle gate, right? It's gotta be here!"

Koichi gave a small smile and a nod, but didn't say anything. It still hurt to find something, only to lose it immediately after. Especially something as important as a Spirit. Nonetheless, they continued on. Pandamon provided them with the necessary information about the ShadowToyAgumon and their whereabouts as they arrived at their destination.

"This staircase will steer you straight inside." As he spoke, Pandamon pointed at a tall staircase, which ended at a door.

Three out of four thanked him (can you guess who didn't?), to which he replied to not thank him and just to stop the ShadowToyAgumon. Nodding, they ran up the stairs until they reached the door. With no hesitation, Koji threw it open.

"Lavender castle, here we come." Takuya muttered, once again calling attention to the useless fact the castle is lavender.

As they looked up to the castle in preparation, the ShadowToyAgumon appeared in front of them. They stood there motionlessly, just watching the kids, which was probably what pissed them off. They are kids. Kids who may or may not have abandoned them. Kids who they needed to get revenge on!

One of them spat his **plastic blaze** attack at them, which they barely dodged.

That did it.

" **EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION!…AGUNIMON!"**

" **EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION!…LOBOMON!"**

" **EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION!…SONAMON!"**

As Agunimon and Lobomon fought, Sonamon stuck close to Koichi to protect him from any attacks.

" **SONAR BOOM!"** She slammed her microphones together, creating a shield around her and Koichi. The blast from the toy-tank slammed into it, but thanks to the shield it didn't hurt anyone.

Not dropping the shield, she flew forward. The tank didn't have enough time to drive away before Sonamon came flying straight through it. As it burst into the regular ShadowToyAgumon, she went back to Koichi's side.

'Weird. Why do I have so much trouble flying? I didn't back at the mountain...'

Her thoughts were cut short by the familiar beeping of a D-Tector. Koichi's eyes went wide. He quickly pulled the device out of his pocket, smiling when he saw the lit up screen.

The ground in between the ShadowToyAgumon, who'd changed into giant robots at this point, burst open. Koichi's Spirit flew out of the crater and to its owner, going into the D-Tector without trouble.

" _It is time."_

The familiar Fractal Code surrounded Koichi as the Spirit Evolution began.

" **EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION!…LOWEMON!"**

The data disappeared and out of the cocoon came the true warrior of darkness. Lowemon, not Duskmon. Thank the digi-lords.

"Awesome Koichi! You've found your Spirit!" Sonamon beamed up, appearing next to him. "How about we help the others?"

Lowemon answered with only a nod, and took off. Sonamon flew next to him, still trying to control her suddenly-oddly-difficult flying. Oddly enough, Lobomon's plan to get the ShadowToyAgumon to hit each other failed, so the two of them were probably needed.

Lobomon saw them coming and made up a plan in his mind already. Taking the role of leader from Takuya, he told them to work on the robot on the left, while he and Agunimon took the one on the right. No arguments there.

"Alright, let's see how you like this!" Sonamon shouted. **"SONAR BOOM!"**

Again creating a sound-shield around herself, she charged. Only this time, she was smacked, face-first, into the ground before she made contact. They'd gotten smarter.

Lowemon crossed his arms, building up a charge of dark energy. **"SHADOW METEOR!"** He released it all at once at the ShadowToyAgumon, but it did nothing.

"My attack had no effect!" Lowemon cried out in surprise.

"It's probably because they're corrupted digimon." Sonamon said. "They're already full of darkness, so adding more doesn't do anything."

"Then how-"

Lowemon was cut off. "I have an idea." Sonamon eyed the others really quick. Seeing Lobomon was listening, she continued. "Let's mix our attacks together. I'll use **sonar boom** in shield form, and you launch me with **shadow meteor**. It should be stronger then our regular attacks."

"But what if it's not?" Lowemon questioned.

"Then we'll come up with another plan! Let's just do it."

Without any more complaints, he nodded. Still dodging the arms and feet of the robot, they got in position.

"Now!"

" **SONAR BOOM!" "SHADOW METEOR!"** The **shadow meteor** didn't just launch Sonamon at incredible speed, it also surrounded her, making the attack twice as effective.

" **PYRO PUNCH!" "LOBO KENDO!"** The other two had followed their example. Agunimon had thrown Lobomon towards the robots. Lobomon had both his kendo sticks out, which were covered in Agunimon's **pyro punch** flames.

Both warriors made contact with the shadow-bots at the same time. This time, they did stumble and froze. Then to everyone's relief they turned black, and their Fractal Code showed.

"I never really liked the black Lego bricks." Sonamon muttered, pulling out her D-Tector. "Let's see what we can do about that~ **FRACTAL CODE DIGITIZE!** "

The two shadow-bots burst into many colorful ToyAgumon immediately. Not that anyone took notice. Immediately after defeating the enemies, they turned back and sprinted into the castle. They followed the sounds of Tommy's cries, which led them up a stairway to a door.

Without hesitation, and thinking he was getting beat up, they threw the door open... Only to see Tommy playing a video-game with Monzaemon.

"I win! Champion of the world!" Tommy cheered, having won the game.

"Tommy? What are you doing?" Koji asked, a little worried and confused. After all, there was the bear that chased them and kidnapped Tommy in the same room as them!

Tommy didn't catch the concern though. "What's it look like I'm doing?"

"But we thought you were in trouble." Takuya expressed his own concern.

"Yeah, it sounded like you were getting attacked." Koichi added his own worries.

"I know." Monzaemon spoke up. "I feel just awful about that, guys. But this little trooper saw through to the real me, and played with me anyway." The puppet digimon rubbed Tommy's head in affection. "He's a good boy."

"So? Can we keep him?" Tommy innocently asked.

While the others sighed, either in relief or annoyance, Sophia answered. "Afraid not, Tommy. He belongs in the digital world." She turned to Monzaemon. "Glad you're back to normal, but next time if you wanna play, don't just throw someone to the ground. It can really hurt, and they may not even want to play. Ask first." Monzaemon nodded with a smile.

Koji frowned at her actions. 'Geez, she sure is two-faced. Playing and acting like a little kid one moment, the next she'd lecturing someone.'

Sophia's smile dropped, hearing those thoughts. '...I can't help it...'

Finally Takuya said it was about time to leave and led them, including Monzaemon, down the stairs. They arrived at the courtyard and were greeted by Pandamon, alongside a whole bunch of guilty looking ToyAgumon.

"To make up for their monstrous mistakes, the ToyAgumon insist they take you off the island."

Hearing that news, the group cheered. A few of the ToyAgumon took them to where they kept an airplane. It just big enough for all five of them, but that would mean one would be flying without seatbelt. Sophia took that place, seeing as Sonamon could fly should anything bad happen. Without any further ado, they were off.

"Hey, Tommy. How come you weren't scared?" Takuya asked, a little out of the blue.

Tommy, misunderstanding the question, answered. "Well, I'm really not afraid of airplanes."

"I mean when you were captured by that evil teddy bear-"

"WaruMonzaemon!"

"W-WaruMonzaemon, right, that's what I said." Takuya quickly corrected himself.

"Well... to be honest. At first I was so scared that I almost wet my pants." he admitted a little shamefully. "But then I figured out that the big guy only wanted to play video games with me."

"Probably only a kid could figure that out." Koji said.

Takuya looked back at the bandana-headed boy. "You're right. And you thought kids weren't good for anything."

Before Koji could retort, ToyAgumon butted in. "Guys, f you look down you can see the forest."

They didn't even need to look down for it. Just up ahead were an abundance of trees and other greenery. A beautifully clean river flowing through it, which even led through the desert-ish land to the mountain. It could partially be seen through the crevice of the mountain they were flying over.

"Wow!"

"Cool!"

"It's just trees."

"Still looks beautiful."

"And as special thanks, how about a little excitement?" ToyAgumon didn't wait for an answer before he put his plan in motion.

Completely forgetting the lack of one seatbelt, he made a loop with the plane, which slowed down, almost to a halt, at the top height. That was unfortunately enough time for Sophia to fall out of the plane, cursing the lack of seatbelt.

" **EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTIOM!...SONAMON!"**

Spirit Evolving in the nick of time, she tried to keep up with the plane. But for some reason, her wings weren't working with her. She kept descending and flying crooked.

"J-Just go ahead! I'll catch up!" Sonamon shouted to the others. "...Hopefully."

A particularly strong gust caught her off guard and completely off balance. She spiraled down, just gaining enough control to not face-plant into the rocks below or the sides of the crevice. She eventually landed in the dirt, de-Spirit Evolving.

"That's gonna leave a mark." she groaned.

"Sophia?!" She turned around in surprise, finding Zoe, JP, Bokomon and Neemon just in front of her.

Around her were miles of tall greenery, flowers of some sort probably. Recognizing where she was, she moaned. 'Great... My day keeps getting better and better...'

* * *

*So yeah, this is something that really happened. I discovered late that I had autism, and didn't understand why I didn't seem to act like the others. They noticed though, and made sure to remind me that I didn't act my age.

I spend about 3 years on and off trying to act what would be considered 'my age', but that just made me a miserable piece of crap. I can happily say, those days are behind me~ (also that 'blaming things on autism' thing is something I still do from time to time)

**When I first started writing this, I had never had cotton candy before. This was literally my reaction when I first had one a couple years back.

***No idea what that word meant when I first heard it xD

Pilled _(peeled)_

But this probably isn't the bad time to be playing (But this probably isn't the _best_ time to be playing)

Heeeeep ( _Heeeelp_ ) Forgot Word doesn't set red stripes under fully capitalized words...

Hey you big fuzzy bear (Hey, you big fuzzy _creep_ )

live ( _life_ )

through wards ( _towards_ ) God there are gonna be **a lot** of these...

trouper ( _trooper_ ) Highly doubt Tommy is a highly experienced actor


	8. The Odd One Out

Hiya guys~

So yeah... Both the episode with Takuya, Koji and Tommy and the JP, Zoe episode/chapter. Eheheee...

I know it seems weird since they're assumed to take place in the same day, same time. But I was 13 or so when I started writing this. And I didn't like it when the episode number didn't match up with the chapter number when I read other fanfics myself. So I did this~

It seemed like a good idea back then -3- And I want to stick as closely to the original as I can sooooo... Hopefully I made it work? We'll know in the next chapter where it's explained :3 Hehe~

Aaaaanyway. Enjoy~!

 **Disclaimer: I don't own digimon in any way shape or form. If I did, that new Appli Monsters season wouldn't exist~ Seriously! Why base digimon off apps?! What's the point of that?! *erm* I do still own Sophia, Sonamon, the unknown Beast Spirit and any digimon that doesn't show in the wiki.**

* * *

"So... You fell out of an airplane and fell because you couldn't control your flying?" Zoe asked, just to be sure she understood right.

Sophia nodded for the umpteenth time since she explained her situation. She kept staring at her D-Tector, which showed Sonamon's face staring back.

'Why can't I control it?' she mentally asked the face in the device. 'The others can fly perfectly... Even _I_ could fly back at the mountain! Why not anymore?' With a sigh, she put it back into her pocket and focused on following the others. "How long will this take, Bokomon?"

As answer, Bokomon jumped up on JP's shoulders and looked around. He even pulled out his book to check...something.

"The entrance to the Forest Kingdom should come up after this field." he answered after, what can only be assumed to be, thorough investigation. Or purely guessing, you never know with the gnome-digimon.

"Field?" Zoe questioned. "This is more like a jungle!"

It was true. The flowers and plants came way above their heads and the leaves alone were up to their legs. They looked like a bunch of dwarfs in a giant's flower field.

"To succeed one must have faith, one must stay positive, one must-"

"Get off my head!" Bokomon was promptly cut off by JP. "For a little guy, you weigh a ton."

"Party pooper." Bokomon jumped from JP's shoulders to Neemon's back.

JP looked at Zoe, deciding the expression on her face seemed more upset than neutral, which it wasn't. And he decided to lighten the mood. "Don't worry Z. I'm sure we'll find a way. You wanna know why?"

Zoe sighed, rolling her eyes as she answered. "Why?"

"Cause we're fighters, that's why!" he exclaimed, striking a heroic pose. "We don't give up and we never quit!"

While that sounded promising, he wasn't too good at keeping his word. A few minutes later he was panting and groaning and complaining. "I give up. I quit."

"It's been 5 minutes..." Sophia remarked, even though she was getting tired as well.

"What happened to that _fighting spirit_?" Zoe mocked the plump boy.

JP moaned again. "It got hungry."

"Is everything about food with you?" Sophia asked.

Zoe gave in to JP's moans. "We'll take a break after we get out of this field, okay?" she asked.

"If I can _*pant*_ make it _*pant*_ that far." JP said in between pants.

Apparently the earth decided he could not. The poor guy tripped on a stone and fell face first in the dirt. Already exhausted, he just lay there panting, not even making an effort to stand up.

"Now what? We don't have time to horse around." Zoe complained, not having seen him trip. After he still didn't get up, she went closer and stuck out her hand for him. "Here."

JP looked up. Seeing the girl of his dreams sticking out her hand to help him up. But he was caught up a little too much into his fantasies. He just stared at it, drooling and blushing. By the time he reached out for her hand, something shot out from the bushes and in between them.

Startled, JP yelled out. "What in beets name is that thing?!"

The 'thing' stopped as soon as it heard JP's voice. It was an orange puffball with a huge spike on the top of his head.

Sophia recognized it immediately. "It's a Tsunomon!" she cried out in delight.

"Tsunomon! Come back at once young man!" A big, cactus-like digimon appeared from the same direction Tsunomon appeared from. "I've had enough of your shenanigans for one day."

She paused in her pursuit to stare at the kids. She was surprised of course, but also seemed oddly happy.

"Before anyone asks, that's a Togemon." Sophia pointed out.

This snapped Togemon out of her staring. "My goodness gracious! What a lovely surprise." she cried out. "You're humans."

"Human beings?" Tsunomon asked, reminding the others that he was still there.

Togemon took her chance with him being shocked, and lunged for him. Not a very friendly thing to do, but she was desperate right now. She luckily managed to grab him by the horn, to which Tsunomon complained, of course. Togemon happily invited the kids to follow her.

"I didn't know digimon had to go to school." Zoe mussed, hearing Tsunomon's complaints about school.

Bokomon of course took his chance to jump in. "That's where they learn the skills they need as full grown digimon."

"Thank you, teacher Bokomon." Sophia said sarcastically. "Care to tell us what _you_ learned there?"

Bokomon gritted his teeth, trying to remain polite in front of Togemon and Tsunomon, but with this girl it was getting near impossible! So he was a Rookie with little to no attacks, who cares? He didn't!

"How exciting! I've never seen real life humans before." Togemon spoke up. "I know! Why don't you come to the school with us? I'm sure the children would love to meet you."

"We'd love to see the school." Zoe said through Tsunomon's complaints. "But I'm afraid we don't have time to stop and check. You see, we're headed for the Forest Kingdom."

"This is an important mission. One that cannot be delayed." Bokomon said, making it sound more important then it actually was.

"You know, things to do, people to see. You'll understand." JP chimed in casually.

"Oh! I was hoping you'd join us for afternoon snack time." Togemon was trying really hard to get the kids to join her.

As soon as 'snack time' was uttered from her mouth, Zoe and Sophia stared at JP, knowing what was coming. They were silently chanting 'Don't. Don't. Don't.', but it didn't work.

"Afternoon snack time?!" he exclaimed. "Why didn't you say so? We are there, lady!"

"JP, could you not think with your stomach for once?" Zoe asked him, annoyed by the delay they were obviously gonna have now.

Sophia sighed. "Have you met him? Of course he can't."

Zoe's head fell as she groaned loudly. "Of all the people I could be stuck with, why'd it have to be you?"

"Because it was written in the stars?" JP stated dreamily.

Zoe, non caring, hit him on the chest. "Save it!"

Sophia gave them a blank stare. 'Are Bokomon, Neemon and I even here?'

They kept following Togemon for a while longer until the end of the field. Finally no more flowers twice the size of you! Togemon pushed some of the plants to the side, revealing a cliff and a huge, plain field just below.

"That's the digimon school, over there." Togemon pointed out to a small house in the clearing.

The others took a moment to stare. It was unbelievably small. Even from the distance they stood they could see it was too small to be considered a school. JP decided to voice these thoughts, with Zoe shushing him quickly. Togemon took them down a safe path on the cliff and to the school.

Immediately the kids rushed out the school to greet their teacher. The little heads jumped all around her happily. Once one of them, Jyarimon, noticed the humans just behind her, he froze. Same happened when the others noticed Jyarimon's strange behavior and finally noticed the humans as well.

"Oh, children. Don't be like that." Togemon told her students. "These humans are our guests, so let's greet them as such."

Togemon went inside, leaving the baby and in-training digimon with the humans. Wondering what Togemon meant, the kids stared at the school awkwardly for her return. When she did, she had an old looking record player. The little digimon saw what their teacher had and immediately jumped into place, surrounding the human kids. Togemon took this as her cue to start playing.

"Welcome humans, to our school.~

Where we learn and play all day.~

We think our teacher's really cool.~

So we hope you'll want to stay.~

Welcome humans, to our school.~

Where we learn the digi-rule.~

Play and play, that would be cool.~"

The little digimon sang, what can only be assumed, an improvised song to greet the human warriors. Well, all except Tsunomon. Not that anyone noticed. Togemon stopped spinning the record player as soon as the singing stopped.

Zoe loved it. All these small digimon were just too cute! She knelt down in front of the small white one, YukimiBotamon. "You are so cute." she told the small creature.

Unfortunately this startled her. Even with Zoe kneeling down, she was so big and intimidating to such a small digimon. She accidentally used **diamond dust** on Zoe, freeing half of her body. Togemon apologized profusely for it.

Zoe just brushed it off with an 'It's okay'. She turned back to the white digimon. "Poor thing. Did I frighten you?"

She nodded shyly. "Y-yeah, just a little bit." It was a bit rushed because of how frightened she was.

"Ha!" Tsunomon laughed. "I was all by myself when I ran into the humans and I wasn't scared. Not even a little!"

His bragging was ignored, only earning him several 'whatever' from the other kids. This was much to Tsunomon's surprise. The digimon kids went inside for their first period. Togemon also motioned for the humans to get inside, but surprisingly it was Bokomon who went inside first. With a small chuckle, the rest followed him.

"Story time~!" Togemon went to the front of the class, in front of the blackboard. "Class, we're in for a real treat today." she told the class. "Instead of a regular old story, our human guests will tell us all about the wonders of the human world. Would you like that?"

The digimon jumped up excited, all shouting 'yes please!'. So that was unanimous.

"Well, perhaps the big blue human would like to go first." Togemon held out her gloved hand to JP.

He slowly pointed to himself. "Do you mean me?" he asked. "The name's JP."

"Very well, professor JP. The class is yours." Togemon stepped away from her tree trunk desk to make room for the 'big blue boy'.

JP was shocked at what he heard. "Professor?! I'm no professor. I'm only in the seventh grade."

Noticing his sudden case of shyness, Zoe decided to tease the poor boy. "Oh don't be so modest. Your class awaits, professor."

The others chimed in at the professor comment, stating it as fact to the young digimon. Finally he went behind the desk, stiff as a robot. His sudden shyness returned when he saw the excited and awe awaiting eyes of the young kids. Even telling himself it would be alright wasn't helping, as he slowly turned blue in the face- wait huh?

"So a...the human...world has a lot of cool things like- eehmm..." He made a bunch of tied up handkerchiefs appear with his magic. "Hankies to wipe your nose with- if you had noses."

Nobody could believe what he said. Did he not know they had handkerchiefs in the digital worl- Oh wait, of course not. Even Togemon looked horrified at what she'd done, letting him speak up front.

Luckily Bokomon saved him more embarrassment by jumping in as soon as he tried talking about toothpaste. He talked about responsibilities, evolving into strong digimon 'like himself', to which Sophia snorted out loud, and the Legendary Warriors. But all of this was boring compared to JP's magic tricks, so halfway through Bokomon's speech they left their seats to go to the humans.

Not long after, it was recess. The young digimon dragged the humans outside to play with them. Zoe took Cocomon, Zerimon and YukimiBotamon, who wasn't afraid anymore, to the slide, going down a couple of times. JP, meanwhile, was playing with digi-wrestling with Jyarimon, Yaamon, Kapurimon and Nyaromon. As it looked right now, the digimon were winning. No one was playing with Sophia, however. No surprise. She hadn't really done anything interesting or been particularly social with the young digimon. She saw Tsunomon jumping around on a rock and sighed.

"Well, got nothing to lose."

She went towards the rock, just as the other young digimon left. Tsunomon went behind the rock, jumping out of sight.

"I just don't get it..." JP muttered.

"How would you feel?" Sophia asked JP, startling him. He hadn't heard the girl coming. "He just got his hopes up to play with the other kids, but got shot down immediately."

She didn't wait for a reply. She just ran up to the rock and jumped on it. It was oddly fun, trying to keep your balance on it. Now she understood why Tsunomon seemed to like it. Speaking of...

Sophia looked over the side. He was still there. "Tsunomon?" The small digimon looked up, not expecting anyone to talk to him. "Are you alright?"

He just looked away. "I'm fine. Why do you care anyways?"

The girl gave a sympathetic smile. "You're not the only outcast, you know." she said, before realizing her words. "I-I don't mean outcast- I mean kind of, but not a bad way. I just mean- er- just... you know..." she cut herself off what she caught Tsunomon's confused eyes. "Sorry."

"I have no idea what you just said." he said blankly.

"Me either." Sophia laughed. "But, really. Are you okay?"

Tsunomon looked down. "I just don't get why they're so mean to me." he muttered. "Just because I can-" he cut himself off.

Sophia didn't pry, knowing what he meant. "Just because you're a little different?" she supplied him with a different answer. He nodded. "I know. People can be real meanies when they find out you're different."

"You mean, you too?" The in-training asked.

Sophia nodded. "I tend to act more childish then most my age, then switch to more adult seconds later. I don't understand social cues and accidentally do very stupid things." she explained. "That sort of things attracts bullies."

Tsunomon nodded. "Yeah... Being different is stupid."

"No, it isn't." Sophia disagreed. "Being different is alright. I mean, it would be boring if everyone was the same. The only stupid thing is people who don't understand it." she gave Tsunomon a slight pat on the back. "It's okay, really."

They didn't have much more time to talk. Before they knew it, Togemon called that recess was over. It was time for P.E.* Togemon had pulled out a little hat and whistle, as well as a grass woven ball for the children.

"Time for P.E." she called. "Today we'll play soccer."

Nyaromon went over to the rock, that was assigned as goal. Yaamon did the same for the other rock. The teams were Kapurimon, Tsunomon, Yaamon and Zerimon versus Cocomon, Jyarimon, YukimiBotamon and Nyaromon. Right now Kapurimon had the ball and was headed straight for Nyaromon's goal. Tsunomon was right next to him, asking for the ball. Kapurimon straight up ignored it, however, and shot the ball towards the goal.

Nyaromon was quick to defend the goal with her **atomic bomber tail** and smacked the ball away from the rock. It stopped not far from Tsunomon. The horned digimon took his chance and hopped for it. Nobody would expect this goal! But before he got even close, Kapurimon headbutted him hard, sending him flying and sliding over the grass painfully.

He glared at the helmet wearing digimon. "What'd you do that for?!"

Kapurimon just gave him a blank stare before bursting out in tears. He was pretending that _he_ got hit! The teacher and some classmates went to his side, asking if he was alright. Togemon, the one who was watching them play **the entire time** didn't see it was Kapurimon who hit Tsunomon. It made Sophia's blood boil.

"Poor Tsunomon." JP commented. "I don't get why the other kids won't play with him."

"They all probably think he doesn't fit in with them." Zoe said. "I know just how he feels."

Zoe explained to them how she didn't fit n at school. How, when the others asked her something, expected something from her, she'd brush them off. She wanted to be herself and not be tied to some expectation the others had.

"No offense Zoe, but I don't think you know how Tsunomon feels." Sophia said, not taking her eyes off the poor digimon. "It sounds like you choose not to fit in with the others, Tsunomon does want to fit in. He told me himself." she explained, looking at them for the first time since the game's begin. "Tsunomon has something that makes him different, and the others cast him out because of it. If anyone knows how that feels, it's me."

 _~Flashback~_

 _Sophia was on the playground of school, watching her classmates play with the newest hype-ball. A glitter ball as big as your hand that bounced amazingly._

" _Hey, can I play too?"_

 _The other kids just took one look at her. "Ew! No way!"_

 _Sophia looked confused. "Why not?"_

" _You're weird! You pushed Thomas yesterday. For no reason."_

' _But... You did too...'_

" _Go away, Peea."_

 _She sat the remainder of recess on a wooden bench, just watching the kids having fun. 'Am I doing something wrong?'_

 _A few days later there were group assignments for the last-years camping trip. Sophia was placed in a group with 2 boys who were luckily friendly to her, but also 2 girls who didn't like her._

" _Do we have to be in a group with Peea?" Denise asked. "Can't she go alone?"_

 _The teacher brushed the nickname off as playful. "No. You're supposed to be in teams and yours was the only one with 4 members."_

" _But she's so weird!"_

" _I-I'm not weird..." Sophia muttered, unfortunately it was heard._

 _Denise and Angelique turned around. "Yes you are!" Angelique exclaimed._

" _You act like such a little kid! You're 12! Act like it!" Denise said. "I mean, you watch a show for toddlers! You pushed Thomas for no reason!"_

" _Yeah! Do us a favor and go be alone like a loser-loner."_

" _B-but..." the girls had already left to join the assigned group. The teacher hadn't noticed anything of course. They only did it when he stepped out of class. "I... I don't know how to act different..."_

 _~End flashback~_

"They wanted to change me... And you know, for a while, they did. But all it did was make me miserable." Sophia finished her own story.

Zoe spoke up again. "I guess we have something in common. You, me and Tsunomon." this caught Sophia's attention. "Our classmates all want us to act like them."

"Well, then act like them." JP butted in. "It can't hurt if it helps you make friends, right?"

The two girls looked up at the plump boy. "JP, I won't pretend to be someone I'm not, just to be popular." Zoe told him.

"Besides, even if we did, if the others find out its an act or you do something that's not like them, they lash out twice as hard as before." Sophia added. "Believe me, I tried."

JP took a moment to reflect on those comments. "Yeah, I guess that would hurt." He said. It actually sounded like he understood their viewpoint.

"Still... No one likes to feel lonely."

Sophia shook her head. "No... And no one deserves to."

Since the class had a small break to tend to Kapurimon there was no harm in going on field. The brunette approached Tsunomon, kneeling down next to him in the grass. He didn't seem to have noticed. He did, however, notice someone brushing the dirt and grass off his fur.

He turned to look. Of course it was the human from before, the only one who dared to be even close to him.

"That's a nasty bruise." she said, seeing the red mark on his forehead. "You okay?"

He just turned away from her hand. "I'm fine." he snapped. "It's not like it's the first time it's happened..."

Without another word, he, along with the other digimon, went back inside. P.E. was canceled for the remainder of the day. Togemon didn't say anything to Tsunomon, didn't even ask if _he_ was okay, like she did with Kapurimon. Teacher of the year everybody... Once everyone was inside, Togemon came in with a big bowl of white...balls? According to the blackboard it's lunchtime, was this the lunch?

"Alright now, everyone." Togemon spoke up. "You know the drill. Open wide."

Every digimon, including Bokomon and Neemon, opened their mouth. Well... except Tsunomon, who still seemed dejected from the soccer incident earlier. JP and Zoe wondered if they had to open wide as well, not familiar with this way of serving lunch. They decided to just do so, while Sophia, being the picky eater she is, closed her jacket halfway to hopefully catch the food in there. _(A.N. It's a caching trick that actually works for me! Don't judge me.)_

Togemon tossed the white balls in the air. **"TOGEMON JAB!"** As soon as they came down, she punched them towards the children.

The digimon caught the food in their mouths, happily munching away and quickly ready for seconds. Even the five guests managed to catch a couple. It was surprisingly good, and it actually tasted like what you'd expect from such a puffy, cream-ball. Sophia caught a few in her jacket and wasted no time sitting down next to Tsunomon to share it.

Of course the small digimon was being stubborn as ever, but she patiently waited for him to eat. He eventually did eat a few bites, but that was when JP came in.

"Hey, come on. Chin up there, little guy." He...He's a head... He has no chin... Does he? "I'll bet I have just the thing to cheer you up." JP ignored the obvious pleas from Sophia to stop and turned to the class. "Everybody listen up!" As soon as he had everyone's attention, he dug into his pockets and pulled out several chocolate bars. "I have a bar of chocolate here for anyone who'll play with Tsunomon!"

"You doofus! You can't just bribe kids like that!" Zoe whisper-yelled.

JP eyed her, oblivious confusion written on his forehead. "Why not? I mean, what's the big deal?"

"Because you're asking them to play for payment! It's not real!" Sophia snapped. "They'll only pretend to like him for the chocolate! That's not right! Payment stops. Playing stops. Friendship stops! Heck, it wasn't even friendship to begin with! Idiot!"

Tsunomon had already seen the refusal in his classmates eyes. They didn't even seem to be thinking about playing with him. Not that he wanted to! But now he was an even bigger freak thanks to the blue human!

"Thanks a lot!" he voiced his thoughts sarcastically. "Now I'm the freak that those guys won't play with, even if you pay them!"

There was a moment of silence in the class-hut. Eyes were focused on Tsunomon and the three humans.

Kapurimon finally broke the silence. "We wouldn't play with Tsunomon anyways. He's not like us."

"Got that right." Nyaromon agreed, as well as everyone else.

Tsunomon could stand it anymore. So he did what he did best, run away from the school. Only this time there was no Togemon to stop him, she was still in shock of the children's words.

"Really? Really?!" Sophia snapped at the teacher. "Now you decide to notice?!" Togemon looked at the girl in surprise. "The whole day Tsunomon was getting bullied, outcast and even framed by Kapurimon for something he didn't do! You were watching the soccer game, but didn't even care to notice _Kapurimon_ hit _Tsunomon_? Why are all teachers such idiots when it comes to bullying?!"**

Without another word she ran out, following Zoe. JP came following after pretty soon. He and Zoe started calling after Tsunomon, trying to get him to stop and listen or at least slow down. For nothing but a bouncing ball, he's pretty darn fast! He yelled at them to leave him alone and ran away even faster. The small group followed him until a small grove where they lost sight of him in the shrubbery. They stopped to catch their breath and hopefully catch sight of the brown furball.

Right when JP yelled at the sky that he wanted to make it up to him, they heard a startled shout and a splash of water. Zoe recognized the voice as Tsunomon's. The trio followed it to a river. There, in the middle, was Tsunomon struggling to stay above.

Zoe only took one look at the scene and made up her mind. "I'm coming!" she exclaimed.

She took a few steps back and ran for the river. When she got close enough, she jumped. There was a tree stump in the water which she aimed for, and succeeded to land on. Immediately she stuck out her arm towards Tsunomon. Tsunomon stopped struggling for a moment and held out his horn to Zoe.

"Just a little more. I've almost got you!"

She reached even further over the water, and Tsunomon got just a little bit closer. Finally Zoe managed to grab his horn. But when she tried pulling him out of the water, his wet fur proved too heavy with water, and she slipped. She and Tsunomon both went under.

"What do I do now?!" JP panicked, looking around for anything that could help in this situation.

Nothing useful was around as far as he saw. But he did see Sophia looking intensely at the water, not looking for anything that could help. Didn't she care that Zoe was in trouble?! A-and Tsunomon of course. He was about to say something, when a data stream from the water caught his eye. And he swore the girl next to him smirked when she saw it.

For a moment there was nothing special happening there. Then Zoe appeared, unconscious and being held by two large yellow and blue paws. Next, a face that obviously belonged to the arms appeared. It was kind of like a dog's face, but with a big yellow horn.

When the rest of the body appeared, and JP saw how big the digimon was, he screamed in panic at it. Why was it holding Zoe? Where did it come from? The digimon came closer, handing Zoe to the screaming boy.

Sophia placed a hand on his head. "Thank you for saving her, Tsunomon- I mean, Gabumon."

That silenced the chocolate lover. This was Tsunomon?! How did she even know? What happened to him? Wait... The data. That's what happened to the others when they Spirit Evolved before. Does that mean... Tsunomon can digivolve?

Zoe came to pretty quickly and insisted on drying her clothes before going back. It took a while, so to pass time JP decided to talk to Tsunomon and apologize for his stupid way of making 'friends'.

"I didn't know you could digivolve." he eventually settled on saying.

"I sure wish I couldn't." the now de-digivolved Tsunomon said, looking down. "It's been nothing but a royal pain in the neck."

JP didn't see the problem in digivolving. "Aw, come on. You don't really mean that."

Tsunomon still looked to the ground, seeming even more down than anytime they saw him before. "Yes, I do."

He told them about the first time he digivolved. It was to get the ball out of the tree for everyone. Only...they didn't know he could digivolve, and he didn't really explain what he was going to do either, before he did it. So they got scared of him. Suddenly a big, kind of intimidating digimon stood where their friend was. Even when they understood what happened, they still shut him out.

"So I digivolved to help them get their ball back, but all they saw was a big, freaky monster." he finished explaining. "Now they won't even play with me, cause they're afraid."

"I wasn't afraid." Zoe called from behind the rock.

"Yeah, me neither." Sophia assured.

It shocked Tsunomon to hear that. He was so sure the three of them would turn to hating him, just like his classmates.

Zoe stepped out from behind the rock. She needed to look Tsunomon in the eye for this. "I don't know what would've happened if you hadn't digivolved and pulled me out of the water." she said with much gratitude.

"And I don't even wanna think about it." Sophia muttered.

But Zoe ignored it. "You saved my life... Thanks Tsunomon."

He couldn't believe it. Not only did they not hate him, but Zoe even thanked him. And the other girl pet his head earlier, now that he thought about it. They were not afraid... They didn't hate him. They...They actually like him!

"Now, what do you say we get back to the others?" Zoe asked him.

JP couldn't contain his excitement at the thought of more snacks. All of a sudden, a rumbling came from somewhere. The sky darkened quickly as drops of rain fell. A storm. One that arrived very quickly...

"Oh perfect. And I just got my clothes all dry." Zoe complained.

"Priorities, Zoe." Sophia mumbled.

Lightning struck somewhere way behind and thunder rumbled again. JP cowered in fear as soon as he heard it, with his hands covering his ears. A small cry alerted Zoe, Sophia and Tsunomon to their scared ally.

"Are you kidding?" Zoe asked, seeing him being afraid of lighting. "You use electric attacks all the time. You can't be afraid of lightning."

"I'm different when I'm a digimon." was JP's reasoning. "Haven't you figured that out yet?" Lightning struck again, sending him crouching even lower.

"Really JP. Just when I thought you couldn't get any more quirky." Zoe continued.

Sophia put a hand on her shoulder to stop her. "It _is_ true." she said. "I'm different when I'm a digimon too. I think everyone is."

Zoe nodded. "Yeah...maybe."

"This isn't good." Tsunomon said, catching everyone's attention back. "I gotta get back to school." He sprinted off in a hurry.

The others followed him until he stopped to look at a river just by the giant flowers. The water was up high, almost overflowing already.

"Miss Togemon said, when it rained this hard before, the water overflowed and flooded the school. If it keeps up they'll all be washed away."

Zoe looked down at Tsunomon, shocked by the words she heard. "Washed away?!" Then she turned to her two friends. "JP, Sophia, we've got to do something!"

"We have to Spirit Evolve." Was JP's idea. "We'll get to them faster if we fly. Then we can use our combined strength to try to save the school from the flood waters."

"Good thinking, JP." Zoe said, sounding kind of surprised.

" **EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION!…BEETLEMON!"**

" **EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION!…KAZEMON!"**

" **EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION!…SONAMON!"**

Tsunomon's reaction was worth the digivolution. He was so in awe. Beetlemon picked up the small digimon and rose up, Kazemon soon following. Sonamon did too, but as usual she flew very wobbly. She eventually had to grab onto Kazemon due to the hard wind pushing her around.

"Wow, you really do fly awful." Kazemon commented.

Sonamon grumbled. "Thanks for noticing." She looked at the other two, noticing how little trouble they had. "How do you guys do it? It's like you've flown your whole life."

Beetlemon and Kazemon looked at each other in thought. How _did_ they do it?

"I'm not sure." Beetlemon said.

"Yeah, it just came natural." Kazemon replied. "Okay, first of, no flapping." she instructed, seeing Sonamon desperately move her wings. "Digimon wings don't work the same as bird wings, you just have to feel the wind under them."

"Easy for you to say! Wind is your element!" Sonamon snapped, but she tried anyways.

"That's it! Focus on flying, and flying only." Kazemon encouraged, slowly releasing Sonamon's grip on her.

Sonamon did just that, and slowly but surely it felt easier. Her wings didn't feel quite as heavy as before and wind bothered her less. She didn't even notice she was flying all on her own until Kazemon cleared her throat and showed her.

She smiled. "Thanks Z."

The warrior of wind smiled back. "No problem." She looked straight ahead again and pointed. "Look, I think I see the others over there!"

The other warriors looked as well. There, on the roof of the school were the digimon. Togemon was helping Neemon up, but as soon as Bokomon pointed at them, she dropped helping him to look. It was pretty amusing to see him flailing there.

When they arrived at the building, Beetlemon placed Tsunomon with the other kids. He didn't even complain about being back there. The small digimon even thanked him.

"We have to divert the water with something big." Beetlemon said, coming up with a plan on the spot. "Like one of those rocks!" He pointed at the rocks that Tsunomon played on earlier that day. "If we work together, we should be able to save the school."

Kazemon smiled at him. "Why, JP. You're pretty brave when you wanna be." she teased.

So they got to work. Beetlemon used his **thunder fist** to break the ground around one of the rocks, so it would be easier to pick up. Kazemon pointed out where to put it, while Sonamon marked it and led Beetlemon there. The water hit almost as soon as the boulder was in place. Kazemon had to use **hurricane wave** to divert the water even more, but it worked. The flood just barely grazed the building and left the field completely undamaged.

Sonamon looked between Kazemon and Beetlemon, wondering what she should do. 'It's up to Tsunomon to save Kapurimon. W-What should I do?'

"Sophia." Beetlemon called out. "If you're not too busy, can you help keep this rock in place?"

"Uh, sure!" She flew over and helped holding the boulder, planting her heels in the ground.

It seems to be a success. The school was going to be safe! The children couldn't contain their excitement anymore. They jumped up and down on the roof, cheering on the Legendary Warriors. Unfortunately they didn't realize how slippery the roof could be. Kapurimon jumped to a slippery part of the roof and slipped off, into the flood waters.

"Kapurimon, no!" Togemon called out in a panic.

Kapurimon was being thrown back and forth in the current, but managed to hold onto a bunch of branched that were sticking out of the water. Togemon wanted to go and get him, but Bokomon held her back. The current is too strong and if such a big and heavy digimon fell and would be swept away it would be harder to save them.

"Tsunomon!" Beetlemon yelled over the loud wind. "Go get him!" Tsunomon turned around to face him, doubt on his face. "You're the only one who can do it!"

"I can't..." Tsunomon told them with a shaky voice.

Kazemon pitched in as well. "You saved me, you can do the same for Kapurimon!"

Tsunomon looked back at his classmates. They were staring at him with slight fear and confusion in their eyes. It made Tsunomon doubt himself even more. What if they cast him out even more after this? What if the bullying gets worse? What if-

"Don't let what they think bother you!" Sonamon snapped him out of it. "Everyone digivolves at some point! If they can't handle it, too bad! But don't let it stop you from doing the right thing!"

A big log appeared in the waters, coming at top speed towards the school. All the kids gasped when they saw it. If that thing hit the school-! Kapurimon's cries grew louder and more desperate. He probably couldn't hold out much longer.

"Tsunomon!" Beetlemon shouted.

"Don't be afraid, Tsunomon!" Sonamon called.

"You can do it!" Kazemon encouraged.

The log hit the rock, spinning to the left, towards Kapurimon! The warriors cried out his name one more time, more desperately. That, combined with Kapurimon's cries finally gave Tsunomon enough courage to digivolve in front of his class again. As Gabumon he ran towards the warriors, past Kazemon and onto the rock.

"Time for **blue blaster!** " He blasted blue flames from his mouth, which launched him in the direction of Kapurimon.

He flew over the water, closing in on Kapurimon and the log. At the last second, he managed to break the log with his horn, preventing it from hitting the small raccoon/fox- digimon. He took Kapurimon in his arms and waited the storm out by the branches, seeing as he couldn't go back so easily.

Luckily for both of them, the storm didn't last much longer. The warriors de-digivolved out of exhaustion. As quickly as he storm clouds came, they disappeared, guess that's weather in the digi-world. As soon as Gabumon got back to the school building with Kapurimon, the younger digimon surrounded him with questions, compliments and all that good stuff.

"No kidding? You mean I don't scare you anymore?" he asked, disbelieving.

"Not a bit!" "You were really awesome!" "We're sorry for being scared of you."

Gabumon smiled happily. He was being accepted. "Ah, shucks guys."

"Gabumon." Kapurimon called from where he stood. "Thank you for saving me." He said shyly. But that shy look was soon replaced by a more excited one. "I can't wait for the time I digivolve! Hope I'm as cool as you are!"

Zoe and JP eyed their digimon-knowledgeable friend, who just stared back. "What? He's got multiple, I don't know what he'll digivolve into."

After the scare and excitement had worn down a little, Togemon got back to business. She told the humans to wait there with the kids while she went and got something. Gabumon decided to de-digivolve, since staying Gabumon took a lot out of him. Togemon eventually returned with...a boat?

"We made this boat for you in craft class." she said. Must've been the class they missed while chasing Tsunomon. "We hope it'll help you."

"Thank you madam." Bokomon thanked on behave of all of them. "We'll get to the Forest Kingdom in no time."

"And I won't have to carry you!" Neemon cheered.

While the other stepped on board, Sophia went to Togemon really quick. "Togemon. I'm sorry about what I said about...you know... All teachers being idiots." She tugged her sleeves in nervousness. "I've just had some bad teachers myself who...never helped. I guess I took out that anger on you. I'm sorry."

"No, I'm sorry." Togemon said, quickly. "You were right. I should've noticed earlier that Tsunomon was getting bullied and cast out. I promise you I will try better. I don't want another fiasco like that happening again."

"Right."

"Sophia, come on!" Zoe called. "Get on board or we'll leave you behind!"

"I'm coming!" Sophia called back. She quickly jumped on board. "Geez, can't a girl apologize anymore?"

Zoe just gave a sly smile before turning to the digimon. "It was nice meeting all of you."

"Hey, Tsunomon. You're not afraid of digivolving anymore, are you buddy?" JP asked the orange puffball.

"Nope." Tsunomon answered. "I'm gonna keep on digivolving. One day I'll be as strong as the Legendary Warriors!"

Sophia gave his head one last pet. "I'm sure you will, bud."

"Actually Zoe, JP and Sophia are three of th-" Bokomon was promptly shut up by Zoe and JP before he could say more.

"Bokomon!" Zoe whisper scolded.

"Zip it would ya!" JP called him out on it as well.

"Remember what happened with the KaratsukiNumemon?!" Sophia reminded him.

Luckily for them and the awkward situation, the wind finally blew, setting the boat in motion. Zoe thanked them one last time as the group waved them goodbye. Eventually they were out of sight, so they shifted their focus of the approaching forest.

"This feels just great." Zoe said, talking about the wind flowing through her hair. Of course she'd say that...

"Yeah." JP agreed. Though he'd probably agree on her with anything. "Y'know, I'm sure glad those kids changed their minds about Tsunomon."

"You wanna know what else?" Zoe asked him.

Not expecting that reply, JP stumbled over his words a little. "Eh... Sure Zoe."

"I think I changed my mind about you a little too." she said.

"Really?"

"Just a little."

It didn't matter that it was only a little, or that he had no idea what she changed her mind about exactly. She changed her mind about _him_ and that's all that mattered to him. He blushed and drooled at the thought of what could've changed. Did she like him now?

"Geez JP, pick up your drool. We don't need the Atlantic Ocean over here." Sophia teased, snapping him out of his lovey dovey trance.

"Oh, look!" Bokomon called, pointing up above the forest. "Our comrades have returned."

That sure got their attention. Sure enough, there they were. Takuya, Koji, Tommy and Koichi hanging by parachutes, with an airplane flying away. They seemed to have seem them as well. Hard to miss a boat, I guess. They waved at each other and shouted their 'hellos'. Finally the group would be complete again. Next stop, the forest!

* * *

*Fun fact: Back when I first wrote this I had no idea what P.E. meant. Now I know it's physical education~

**Sorry, I had to vent there. This isn't aimed at teachers in general, just the ones I had (minus 1 or 2 who actually helped me)

So yeah, I feel like I need to explain. Sophia is based on me in a lot of ways. Like my bully experiences, autism, and tendency to make friends with lone-kids. (No, honestly, every school, every grade I only had 1 or 2 real friends who didn't have (m)any other friends at school.)

I'm in no way trying to make her a better version of me (or a Mary Sue, as most 'self inserts' tend to be). But that is who she was years ago, and I'm sticking to some of that, but changed enough to become her own character.

Cutted ( _Cut_ ) Yup... Again.

Exiting ( _Exciting_ )

threat ( _treat_ ) Oh god xD I can't imagine what people thought when they read this!

Brighten ( _bribe_ ) How? Just...how?

Corky ( _quirky_ ) What even is corky?

Flowed ( _flooded/flood_ )

Sip ( _zip_ )


	9. Welcome to My Nightmare

Hiya guys~!

Ugghh... I swear to god... Colds are going to be the death of me! At least you can sleep through other illnesses, but because I hardly ever get sick I have to suffer through colds that hit 10x worse then normal to make up for it! Blegh!

But although it's halting my writing process, I won't let it stop me uploading schedule (Yes I have a schedule now, woohoo!) *coughcough*

Hopefully March will be a better month...

Hope you enjoy~

 **Disclaimer: I do not own digimon or any of it's characters. I do own Sophia, Sonamon, her Beast Spirit, the plot changes and any and all digimon that don't appear on the wiki page. I also own the extra bit of the forest scene that will absolutely make sense in future chapters, I promise *nervous chuckling* Bye~! *runs***

* * *

The wind stopped when the boat reached the beginning of the forest. Zoe, JP, Sophia and the digimon stepped out, and waited for the parachute boys to land. Once they did, and once they'd stripped off their parachute gear, the gang went into the forest, glad to be together again. They walked for a while, retelling their stories of what happened while they were split, which reminded Sophia of something.

"How come you guys were here so late?" she asked. When the boys looked at her with questioning looks, she tried again. "When I fell out, we were pretty close to the forest already. You should've gotten here way before us."

"Well, we were about to land." Koich said. "But before we did, a freak storm came up."

"Oh yeah." Takuya piped up. "It came out of nowhere really fast. ToyAgumon could barely fly us above the storm clouds. Would've ended pretty badly if he didn't."

Zoe and JP looked at each other. "That sounds like the storm that hit us." Zoe said.

"Yeah! That storm came out of nowhere too." JP added.

"And obviously he couldn't land in such dangerous weather." Koichi explained further. "And we couldn't really use the parachute either with the strong wind. We'd be blown away. So ToyAgumon had to fly above the clouds until it was safe for us to jump."

"That...makes sense."

Bokomon suddenly stopped them. "Look there." he pointed to something.

The others followed his gaze. It fell on the Trailmon tracks way in the distance that went over the forest. It seemed to go or miles.

"I believe the Forest Kingdom begins beyond that track." he said.

"Sure looks big." Takuya pointed out the obvious.

"Hey Bokomon, how much farther do we have to walk to the Forest Terminal?" JP asked the gnome-digimon who, for whatever reason, had his hands stuffed into his waistband.

"Don't worry. You should only have to walk a little bit more." Bokomon told him.

"A little bit more?" JP sighed deeply. "These little bits are killing me."

Without much complaints, they were on their way again. They followed Bokomon's word and headed in the direction of the Trailmon tracks, sticking mostly to clearings. They spend until sundown just talking, telling more of their split-up adventure that they weren't able to tell earlier.

"Man, isn't it time for a dinner break?" JP piped up while the others ran down a hill. "I'm wasting away here!"

"We didn't even get any breakfast yet!" Tommy added.

Well it was true... While Zoe, JP and Sophia had a small meal at the school, the others didn't have anything to eat at Toy Island, aside from candy. Their last actual meal was back with the KaratsukiNumemon.

Takuya thought for a moment. They had walked for quite a while, the sun was almost down after all. And they needed to save their strength to Spirit Evolve, as they'd learned on Toy Island.

He nodded to himself. "I think we'd better stop here and make camp." was his decision.

"It's been a long day for all of us." Zoe agreed.

And Koji? Well, he just didn't care. They went just a little bit farther to a clearing, as to not set the forest in flames with the campfire. They found a spot and turned to face each other and make a plan, but oddly found Zoe running towards them. Hadn't she been standing right next to them just a second ago?

"Look what I found." she said, holding something in her hand. It was an apple. "I hope it's edible." She showed it to Bokomon, hoping he'd know.

"It's called a meat apple." he told the group.

"Meat apple?"

"Yes." he confirmed. "Each one has the flavor of a different meat, quite nutritious actually."

Takuya pointed at it. "Where'd you find that thing?"

"It was just lying on the ground." Zoe told him. "There has to be a tree somewhere nearby." The hungry boys were happy to hear that possibility. "Bokomon, will you help me find some more?"

"Certainly."

"Can I come?" Neemon asked.

"Alright." Bokomon sounded aggravated as he pulled Neemon along by the pants.

Tommy went along as well, leaving Takuya, Koji, JP, Koichi and Sophia as firewood gatherers. They went the other way, picking up big and dry twigs and branches. Time went by fast, by the time Zoe and Tommy were back it was already night. But now that they were back, Takuya and Koji could finally make the campfire. Though, he seemed to be having some trouble with it.

Meanwhile the other kids and digimon were busy sticking the meat apples on some sturdy twigs.

JP looked hungrily at the apple he just poked on the stick. "Apple, you're my best friend." he said, immediately taking a big bite out of it.

"That's pretty sad." Sophia muttered, while JP spat out the apple in disgust.

Bokomon snickered a little. "You don't eat them raw, you know?" He sounded kinda amused by JP's reaction.

"-he Spirit Evolved into that crazy Gigasmon." The others overheard Koji say. They looked over for a moment, seeing him and Takuya deep in conversation.

"But he called it Beast Spirit." Takuya remembered. "Just what does that mean? Any clue?"

Sophia piped in. "Most likely it means a higher level." The two rivals turned around, a little startled. Though, Koji was mostly annoyed their conversation had been eavesdropped on. "Digimon have at least 5 levels." Sophia explained. "Baby, when they just get out of the egg, In-Training, Rookie, like Bokomon and Neemon, Champion, which I guess our Spirit levels are, Ultimate and Mega. Maybe Gigasmon is closer to Ultimate level than Champion?"

Takuya just stared blankly. "I have no idea what that means."

While she tried, and on Takuya's part failed, to explain it in more detail and more clearly, the others came running over with the apples. Except for Tommy. Tommy hung back, having heard something flying by above. When the gang looked, they saw him just staring at the tree tops. JP called him over so they could start eating.

While waiting, Takuya decided he wanted to know more about these Beast Spirits. "Hey Bokomon." he called to the white digimon. "Anything in that book about a Beast Spirit?"

"I haven't seen anything." Bokomon answered. When did he have time to look? Or does he just know the book inside out? Wouldn't make sense if he always had to search for each warrior.

"If it's not too much trouble, could you just take another look?" The goggle-head asked him.

"Certainly." Bokomon was glad to look up information for someone who asked so polite, unlike _somebody who irked him whenever possible!_

He pulled the book out of his waistband, never seizing to confuse the kids on how that fit, and took a look. He searched the entire warrior section of the book, even taking a quick look at the history section, before ending it off at the Spirit page. Nothing.

"I'm afraid I still don't see anything." He told Takuya. He was disappointed at himself. He, the bearer of the book, the book had held every possible information about history and the Legendary Warriors, couldn't find one little piece of information- Why was Neemon rubbing the page?! "Paws off, baggie!" he snapped at the rabbit digimon.

"But I think I found something." Neemon said. Ha! Neemon finding something? This oughta be good. "This page seems to be folded over. Maybe there's other stuff inside!" ...oh, he's good.

Bokomon opened the folded page, ripping one part off in the progress. "Oh! It's a miracle, you're actually right." He took a moment to scan the two pages, finding the words 'Human-Spirit' and 'Beast-Spirit' that he'd been searching for. "This changes everything. It seems there are two Spirits for each of the Legendary Warriors." This had everyone turn their full attention to Bokomon. Two Spirits? That was a big shocker. "The first is the Human Spirit, like Agunimon, but the second is called the Beast Spirit. That explains where Gigasmon came from." he explained to the group. "But how did he summon the Beast Spirit?"

"I wonder what life would be like as a beastie." Neemon came with another brilliantly dumb comment.

"Let's feed you to one and you can find out from the inside." Was Bokomon's snarky comeback. He was obviously done with him right now. "Don't you realize? This means the children may have the power to Spirit Evolve again."

Spirit Evolving again. It seems like a dream. And beast forms, huh? What would it look like? What beasts could be their forms? Though...Gigasmon didn't look like any type of animal, would it be the same for them? How powerful would it really be? All the questions and no answers!

"Well, then." Koji spoke up after a while. "If Bokomon's right, each of us should be able to get a Beast Spirit."

"But if that's true, then we're only halfway there." Zoe remarked.

JP groaned. "Aw man. It's like starting over."

"Not really." Sophia said "We have the Human Spirits, so it'll at least be a lot easier then no Spirits at all."

"Bokomon. Bokomon. Boko- Ouch!"

"But if we get our Beast Spirits, maybe we can beat Grumblemon!" Tommy said chipper.

Takuya was all for it, being all enthusiastic about it. "Well I'm willing to give it a try! Beast Spirit evolution, here we go!" he exclaimed.

"Yeah!" the others chimed in.

"Bokomon. Bokomon. Bok- Ouch!" Neemon cried out in pain again. After poking Bokomon multiple times and being slapped twice for doing it, Neemon took a different approach to the situation. "Is this a good idea?"

Bokomon turned towards his companion in slight anger. "What is the matter with you?" Wow Bokomon. Did you just really ask that? He stood up, trying to be all heroic. "We have to help you find your Beast Spirits as soon as possible. After all, it may be the only way to save the digital world!" Bokomon went on another preach. "We haven't even made it to the Forest Terminal. We're running out of time! These Beast Spirits must be our number one priority."

'He says now, but when we arrive at the Forest Terminal we'll only have Koji and Takuya's Beast Spirit.' Sophia thought with a soft snort.

"Nope, not good." Neemon said, unfazed by Bokomon.

Bokomon turned to the yellow digimon again, glaring this time. "What is not good?"

Neemon pointed to the fire. "The meat apples." he said simply. "While you're talking, they're burning up."

The group finally took a look at the fire where, true to Neemon's words, the meat apples were steaming and slightly charred. Everyone scrambled to grab them as quickly as possible. Takuya unfortunately tried to fast and ended up with his arm in the fire. He pulled back with a start, but there was nothing on his arm. No burn, no charred skin. Nothing.

Zoe noticed him looking at his arm. "Takuya? What's wrong?"

"Eh- N-nothing." he stumbled. "It's... it's nothing." He examined his arm again, still not seeing anything. In fact, it didn't even hurt. 'Why am I not burned? My arm was clearly in the fire, so why-?'

Instead of pondering about it anymore, he set another meat apple by the fire, following everyone else's example. After that he, as well as everyone else, sat down and took a bite of their, by now cooled down, meat apples.

"Mine's like a meat bun!" JP exclaimed cheerfully. He must like meat bun a lot.

Tommy followed him with exclaiming what the meat apple tastes like. "This one tastes almost like a chicken drumstick."

"I think I'm eating prime rib." Takuya said with his mouth still full.

"Yeah, gingered pork." Koji said, almost cheerfully which sounded odd from him.

"This one tastes just like schnitzel." Sophia said.

Koichi looked at his with interest. "I think I've got onigiri."

Zoe fell back on the grass. "Mine's ossobuco!" she exclaimed like the happiest person in the world.

While they were enjoying the meat apples, it suddenly got dark. Thick clouds moved to cover the moons, clouding the forest in complete darkness. At least for a few seconds. The group noticed a bright glow from beside them.

"Something is happening." Tommy said, noticing the odd glow first.

Everyone turned their heads to see where the glow came from. To their surprise, it came from a group of trees. 9 or more trees had a glowing spot on their bark. The warriors came a little closer for better inspection. It turns out, all the trees showed the human world. There was one with a plane, a mountain, the Eiffel Tower*.

By now, even more trees glowed. They were surrounding the gang. There were TV-trees that showed roads, cities, a group of people, the Arc de Triomphe and so much more places in the human world.

Everyone voiced their awes at them. TV-trees in the digital world that showed the human world? Weird, confusing, sweet and all kinds of awesome.

"Wow! Tree TVs!" JP exclaimed. "I hope it isn't all traffic channel. I wonder if we can get music videos?"

Zoe recognized one of the buildings the TVs showed. "Wait a minute. That's our world." she realized. "Those scenes are from back home!"

"That's right, Zoe." Bokomon had his book pulled out already, reading off it about the forest. "It's called TV Forest, a video gateway to the human world."

"Now that's really weird." Koji remarked.

Sophia nodded. "Yeah, why and how is this here in the first place?"

"I'm not sure." Bokomon said, leaving through the pages. "It says here the forest once existed of only twelve trees, which were placed here for some sort of celebration, but I am not sure what it was they celebrated."

Twelve original trees, huh? While the others gushed over the sights shown in the trees, Sophia went a little deeper into the forest.

' _Deeper.'_ A voice in the back of her mind said. _'Left.'_

The voice continued to give her instructions until she apparently reached the place Bokomon spoke of. Twelve trees, separated and surrounded by all others. It showed a continues loop of twelve older teenagers, then skipped to recording of older humans. All except 2, which showed just static whenever it skipped to the older people.

"Why are they showing humans here?" Sophia asked herself.

As she went closer, she realized voices came from the trees. The scenes on the trees were similar to each other. All showed a human with a digimon having fun, followed by them...merging?! It looked the same as Spirit Evolving, with the data cocoon and all. After the cocoon disappeared it showed the Ancient Warriors, as well as two unfamiliar digimon. After that it switched to the human world to older people, around their 80s. Were these the same people?

Sophia looked over at the two static trees. _'Touch...'_ The same voice in her mind whispered.

Touch? Touch what? The tree? Deciding to test her luck, she placed her hand on one of the static trees. It probably didn't matter which one she'd touch, all of them were connected at the roots. Immediately when she did a bright light shone, blinding her.

 _When the light finally dimmed everything was different. Instead of the forest, it as more of a meadow area. It wasn't night, but possibly somewhere in the early afternoon. It was quite beautiful, all the flowers in the meadow, the red, yellow, blue and purple of the sky. But what was she doing here?_

" _Hey! What are you doing over there?" an unfamiliar voice called._

 _Looking in the direction of said voice, Sophia saw a group of 10 people. Upon closer inspection, they seemed to be the teens shown in the trees. Each held something in their hands. She was about to answer them, when two others ran right through her! With a gasp, she patted herself down. Still one piece. Then what-?_

 _One of the teens, the boy, answered. "Sorry. We were just saying goodbye." He sounded sad._

 _More curious now, Sophia went closer. The group consisted of 7 guys and 5 girls, including the boy and girl who just RAN RIGHT THROUGH HER!_

 _The boy with goggles, that looked awfully similar to Takuya's, sighed. "I know Wakou. But they asked us to give them to the Celestials for protection, remember?"_

" _We know, Ryuu." the girl said. "But...our partners weren't even warriors to begin with. They just...sacrificed themselves for...something that wasn't supposed to be their problem." Her voice trembled, like she was close to crying. "We had to apologize for getting them into this mess."_

" _Suzumi, it wasn't your fault." one of the girls comforted the crying girl. "They were loyal to their world. They told me once, even if you hadn't asked for help, they would've found a way to fight regardless if they were wanted."_

 _That had the two look up. "But-"_

" _When they asked why they should help they were testing you." Another boy said._

 _Again another boy stepped forward to the one they called Wakou. "Now heads up, dude." he said. "Big guys don't cry."_

 _Wakou snorted. "You're crying too, Kurotsuki."_

 _Kurotsuki playfully punched him on the shoulder. "Watch it, Daneven."_

 _Sophia's eyes widened._ _Daneven_ _? Wakou_ _Daneven_ _?! Her grandfather was in the digital world?! And Suzumi... Suzumi was her grandmother... What is going on?_

" _Come on, warriors. Let's bring our partners to the Celestials."_

 _That was the last thing she heard before everything became blinding bright again._

Sophia was thrown back from the trees. Still too much in shock of what happened, she just lay there, staring up at the sky. The clouds hadn't moved past the moons yet. But that wasn't what her mind was on.

"Grandpa? Grandma? Warriors? Partners?" she breathed. Tears built up in her eyes in frustration of the inability to figure this mess out.

Why were they in the digital world? Why did they have partners? Why did that one guy call them warriors? Why did they need to see the Celestials? Why were they carrying the Spiri-!

She sat up with a start. "The Spirits! They were carrying the Spirits!" she whisper-yelled. The wheels in her brain were turning, but no explanation that came out made any sense. She looked back at the static trees, suddenly understanding why they were static. "Goodbye grandpa, grandma." she whispered with tears in her eyes, but a small smile was present. "I wish I could've heard this from you. Bet it would've been an amazing story."

She went back the way she came, arriving back at the campsite right when the clouds pulled away. Tommy's cries for his mother were heartbreaking, reminding everyone he's just an 8-9 year old kid. That in turn reminded everyone that they themselves were just kids too. Kids who were in a different world, far away from their parents and other family members. They all sat down at the campfire, hit with a sudden case of homesickness.

"I bet my mom is really worried about me." Zoe said as she just stared into the fire.

Meanwhile Takuya couldn't stand to see his little brother figure sad anymore. He took a glance at his meat apple, and hoped his idea would work. "Cheer up, little buddy." He handed the smaller boy the apple. "Go on." he urged. "Try my apple. It's hot-dog."

Luckily it had the effect Takuya wanted. Tommy reluctantly took the meat apple, but he stared at it rather then eating it. But he looked better, and he wasn't sobbing anymore.

"Tommy could be your little brother." Zoe commented on the small exchange.

Takuya wanted to laugh. Like he hadn't figured that out already. Though, it did seem to make Tommy feel better. The little guy did take a bite from the meat apple with a small smile, so Takuya was happy.

A sudden sound from above made the gogglehead turn around. Though, all there was when he looked were a bunch of falling leafs. He chose to ignore it. It was probably just a digimon passing the forest to get somewhere.

Instead he turned to Koji, seeing him rest against a tree. Now that he though of it, he's been lying there since the TV trees turned off. "Hey Koji, are you falling asleep?" he asked.

The blue clad lone-wolf turned away from him, moving for the first time if a few minutes. "Sleep? Tsk! I'm lucky I'm not bored to death."

Takuya smiled just a little. That's Koji for you. JP didn't take it as well though.

"Hey bud, what's your problem?" he asked, annoyed by his behavior. "He needs a nap."

"He's just grumpy." Zoe said, walking up behind JP. "Hey JP, maybe Tommy would like to see some of your magic." she suggested.

This confused Takuya. "Magic? Since when?"

"Since I was a kid myself." JP answered.

While JP performed his little magic trick, which was similar to the one he did at the digimon school, Sophia wrote a few more notes on her notebook. She wrote the notes about her grandparents having been in the digital world with another 10 people, them having partners and possibly having a connection with the Legendary Warriors. It was all just a big cluster of confusion. She also wrote a small note on the origin of the TV trees, about the twelve original trees and about what Bokomon told her about the celebration.

Nothing new otherwise, so she put it back in her pocket. JP had already finished his magic trick, and the group was just about ready to go to sleep. They started gathering some big leafs to sleep on and use as covers, when Takuya noticed Tommy had already fallen asleep. He put up a make-shift bed for the young boy, and lay him down on it before gathering more leafs for his own bed.

When they were satisfied with their work it was time to decide something. very. important.

"Alright. Who's gonna take first watch?" Takuya asked. Of course no one answered, because frankly...no one wanted to.

"Well, it's not gonna be Tommy." Sophia said. She sat down next to him, softly humming a song to him to ease his obvious nightmare.

But no one else spoke. They just kind of looked at each other expectantly. After another minute of this, Zoe groaned and got up. She went to one of the trees and picked up a bunch of random sticks.

"Alright." she said. "If no one's offering, I guess we'll decide this way." She held out the sticks. There were 6 in total. "We're drawing straws."

"Great idea, Zoe!" JP exclaimed a little too loud. He was quickly shushed by most for almost waking Tommy.

So they drew straws and let me tell ya. JP's compliment to Zoe quickly flew out the window after he drew the shortest stick. Takuya was second, followed by Sophia, then Koichi, Zoe and lastly Koji if it was needed.

Takuya stayed up with JP for a little while, bonding a little while he did. Truth to be told, no one was really sleeping. Koji's head was filled too much with Ophanimon's message about 'all the mysteries that will be revealed', and the others were kept awake by Tommy. Well, more specifically, their worries about the little guy. His nightmare didn't seem to ease up. At one point Sophia abandoned the thought of sleep and sat down next to him again, humming the song from before while stroking his hair.

There was a moment of peace, where even Tommy was silent. But it was quickly disturbed by an unknown presence. Takuya tensed when he saw a shadow from the corner of his eye. He turned toward where he saw it, but there was no sign of it. It was still there, though, he just knew it. And something told him it was the same presence from earlier.

"Did you just see a ghost?" JP asked.

Takuya didn't take his eyes off the area he spotted the shadow. "I saw something, I'm just not sure what. But it feels like we're being watched."

JP, of course, panicked and looked around for the creature. Takuya stood up to get a better viewpoint, but he still found nothing. Even Sophia paused her comforting to look around. But they found nothing.

"Um, maybe it was a squirrel or something?" JP suggested, after a moment of searching.

Sophia shook her head, not that he saw it. "In case you haven't noticed, JP, there are no animals here. Just digimon."

"I can't believe you didn't feel anything just then." Takuya commented.

"I did." JP told him. "But I think...it might have just been gas from eating too many of those meat apples, if you know what I'm saying. And I think you do."

"Too much info, dude." Sophia said.

The trio continued looking around, until Tommy's moaning distracted them. Even Zoe and Koichi woke from their light sleep to look at the youngest member of the group. The warriors dropped the everything to try and sooth the boy, but no one could think of anything that would work.

Sophia went for what she'd done earlier, but before she could. "STO-O-OP!" In a rush he woke up, rushed to the campfire and grabbed a lit stick from the pile. After which he just...stood there, mumbling to himself about not forgiving someone.

"There's something wrong with him." Takuya said. Great observation by the way, no one figured that out yet.

"Hey half-pint, snap out of it." JP called out to him.

But Tommy didn't listen. He rose the stick to his head and got into an attack position. He'd taken a step closer to Takuya and JP, like he was going to attack them. Not even a second later, he did. He swung the stick at Takuya first, then JP. Both luckily dodged the ember-filled stick.

Zoe called him out on it. "Tommy, stop that right now!"

Tommy just looked from JP to Zoe, seeing a new opportunity to attack. He ran towards Zoe, slashing at her. She got out of the way just in time. Koji jumped in front of her to protect her from anymore attacks.

He held the stick out in front of him. "I will not forgive!" he yelled.

Takuya had just about enough of this. "Now cut it out!" he yelled. "This isn't funny, Tommy!"

He looked at- well...glared at Takuya. "I will never forgive any of you!"

Koichi nearly gasped when he saw his eyes. "Guys, look at his eyes." he pointed out.

They were completely glazed over in a sinister way. The others saw it as well. Immediately they knew there was something seriously wrong here.

Tommy eventually threw the stick away. "You're going to pay for what you've done to me!" But instead of giving up, he reached for his D-Tector. That didn't look good. **"EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION!... KUMAMON!"**

After freezing the fire with his **crystal freeze** he advanced on the others, who stepped back in fear. They didn't understand what as going on, but it was clear Kumamon wasn't gonna go easy on them.

"I'm tired of you bullying me!" he exclaimed, taking a deep breath. **"CRYSTAL FREEZE!"**

The warrior kids ran away. The ice was on their heels as they ran past a tree. Luckily, the tree caught the attack for them, but it was completely frozen at the trunk. And I don't mean around, but through and through as, soon after being hit, the tree snapped like a twig.

"He's gone completely crazy!" Takuya exclaimed, hiding behind a tree just like everyone else.

"It's not his fault!" Koichi told him, clutching is head as if in pain.

"What do you mean?" Zoe asked Koichi.

Before he had time to explain, Kumamon used his **crystal freeze** again on the tree they were hiding behind. The tree fell, prompting the group to flee again, JP screaming how sorry wasn't the magic word. But Zoe wasn't fast enough. She looked in fear as the tree came closer towards her, when Takuya swooped in and saved her. He took Zoe in his arms and jumped out of the way of the tree. They landed just beside it, safely.

Takuya looked at Zoe in concern. "You okay?" he asked.

Zoe answered with a simple 'yeah'. But this whole rescue didn't sit well with JP. "Hey! How come Takuya gets to fall with Zoe?"

"Priorities, JP!" "Run you jerk!" Sophia and Koji shouted at the same time.

They fled just in time before another **crystal freeze** hit them. They grouped back together, staring up the hill at the teammate that was attacking them.

"Looks like the only choice we have is to Spirit evolve and take him out." JP said.

Spirit evolve? And attack their youngest? The little boy most had come to see as their little brother? They couldn't do that!

"I won't do it!" Takuya told the blue-clad boy. "There has to be another way to stop him."

"Right." Zoe agreed.

"Sorry JP, I'm with them." Was Koji's answer.

Koichi and Sophia nodded, letting know they were also against attacking Kumamon.

JP looked away from them, both because his idea was shot down, but also because he was a little ashamed to have suggested it in the first place. There was no way he could fight the short-stuff. "Fine. Well, what do you propose?"

No one could answer before they had to flee once again for yet _another_ **crystal freeze** attack. They hid a little farther into the surrounding trees, while still keeping an eye on Kumamon. Takuya was watching as Kumamon approached, when a sudden shadow in his peripheral caught his attention. It jumped from the trees onto the ground and back into the trees.

"What was that?" Koji asked.

So Koji saw it too, huh? It wasn't just his imagination. "I know I definitely heard something that time."

Koichi looked over at Koji, still clutching his head for unknown reasons. "Koji, maybe some light would help?"

"Right!"

While he Spirit evolved, Sophia kept her eye on Koichi. "Koichi? Are you okay? You look like you're in pain."

Koichi's grasp on his head loosened a little. "I've just got a headache." He said. "Nothing to worry about."

Sophia gave him a doubtful look. "Are you sure? You seemed fine when we went to bed..."

"It's just..." Koichi looked around. How was he going to explain this? "Remember that I told you about how I could feel that Goblimon and Grumblemon were evil?" Sophia nodded. "That feeling is back, but stronger. It's giving me a headache."

Whatever was left to say about it was cut short by Lobomon. **"ANCIENT SPIRIT OF LIGHT!"**

His attack send a huge tower of light straight into the sky. It lit up the entire forest, including the fleeing figure of a digimon. Takuya saw it this time. He Spirit evolved to Agunimon and went in pursuit.

Zoe stared as Agunimon appeared in the forest. Takuya was the first to object to Spirit evolving, so why would he be Agunimon right now? "Okay, now something is definitely wrong."

"All I know is that they broke the agreement and we have to protect Tommy." JP exclaimed, seeming angry.

Sophia cut in. "No one is going to harm Tommy." she quickly said. "Koji and Takuya found something and we think it has something to do with Tommy."

"Whatever it is, it has dark intentions." Koichi muttered just loud enough to be heard.

'Dark...' Sophia made a mental note to write this down later.

The four non-evolved warriors looked back at the showdown between Kumamon and Lobomon. Kumamon jumped in the air, using his **frozen tundra** to pierce Lobomon. Luckily Lobomon was a quick thinker and used his light swords** to deflect the attack.

"Incoming!" came Agunimon's cry from the forest. There was another unrecognizable voice before they heard Agunimon again. He burst out of the bushes, riding a small digimon. "Rotten little warthog!" He yelled at the creature.

"What is he riding?" Zoe asked, as the digimon made a sharp turn, knocking Agunimon off its back and went to hide behind a tree.

"That's Bakumon, a rookie level. They're supposed to be a kind digimon who eats bad dreams. But watch out for his nightmare syndrome, it traps you in a nightmare."

Unfortunately, just like with Warumonzaemon, Agunimon didn't listen and went in for the attack anyway. Bakumon charged as well, but before Agunimon could hit him, Bakumon dodged. He flew a little higher and attacked Agunimon with his **nightmare syndrome**. Agunimon fell to the ground, unmoving.

"Takuya!" everyone but Lobomon and Kumamon called out in worry.

It didn't take long for Koichi to fall to the ground, clutching his head even harder. Before anyone could ask what was wrong, he spoke. "He's not gonna make it... He'll turn against us, I can feel it."

'But...that's not what...' Sophia looked at Agunimon, who was still shaking. Shaking meant he was struggling against the dark energy. It was lessening...

"Takuya won't give in..." she muttered. "Takuya won't give in!"

"You're right I'm not!" Shocked at hearing his voice, Koichi looked back at him. But... That feeling from before, he was sure- "It's only a dream! Bakumon has convinced him that we're his enemies!"

Bakumon. Was...was that feeling just now Bakumon's fault too? Koichi eyed the place Bakumon was hiding. He was looking back, snickering slyly. That digimon knew exactly what Koichi was thinking.

"I have an idea." Sophia's voice cut through his thoughts. **"EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION!...SONAMON!"**

Agunimon and Sonamon went to where Lobomon was cornered by Kumamon. Kumamon was already pointing his Launcher at Lobomon.

"Kumamon!" Agunimon shouted. "You're under the spell of Bakumon's nightmare syndrome. It isn't real, you have to fight it!"

' _Agunimon? You're not my enemy?'_ Sonamon heard Tommy's voice. "We aren't your enemy, Kumamon! Never were. We're friends." she, unknowingly to the others, answered his question. "You handle Bakumon, I'll help Tommy." she whispered to Agunimon, who agreed.

While Agunimon prepared his **pyro punch** , which set Kumamon on edge again, Sonamon got ready for one of her own attacks.

" **SOOTHING SOUND!"** The speakers on her body pulsed with a soothing melody. Sonamon took one of the microphones off her arm and decided to sing the song she'd been humming to Tommy earlier. _"How could you promise you always would be there? Why'd you have to go away somewhere? Every morning into every night. Do you watch over me, like the sun in the sky. Am I all alone, or standing in your light. I wish that I could...maybe. Sing you a song...tonight. … You promised that we'd stay for the sunset."_

It probably wasn't the most appropriate song for this situation, but it was the only song she could think of with a soothing melody at the time! Besides, it seemed to have worked. While Agunimon was still fighting Bakumon, now with Lobomon's help, Kumamon turned back into Tommy.

" **PYRO PUNCH!"** Agunimon launched four flaming punches at Bakumon, who finally couldn't dodge anymore. His Fractal Code showed, allowing Agunimon to scan it. "Time for some purification. **FRACTAL CODE DIGITIZE!** "

"Lobomon? Agunimon? Sonamon? Have you been fighting somebody?" Tommy asked, dumbfounded why three of his friends were Spirit evolved.

"Glad to have you back, Tommy." Lobomon didn't really answer.

Zoe walked up to the young warrior. "Tommy, don't you remember? You just had a terrible nightmare."

"That's right, you gave us quite the scare there young man." Bokomon told him. "Bakumon's dream made you think we were your enemies."

"Yeah, but it was actually Cherubimon's fault." JP supplied with more expositio- explanation.

"Bakumon's better now. He didn't know what he was doing at the time." Well it's just Neemon's smart day, isn't it?

Bakumon flew in from above. The scan had him receive his holy ring back.*** "I'm sorry." he apologized. "From now on I promise I'll only send you good dreams."

With all of that said and done, the group, accompanied by Bakumon, went back to their campsite. While walking, Takuya started up a conversation with Koji.

"Thanks Koji. I'm sorry I ever doubted you. I owe you one."

"You don't owe me anything." Koji said. "Besides, you're the one who sensed something out there." This stopped Takuya in his track, and in turn Koji and the kids behind them. "I've always heard savages rely on intuition."

"You really hate being nice, don'cha?" Takuya countered.

After a few seconds, Koji and Takuya looked at each other, smiling in understanding. They gave each other a fist bump. This was just the kind of friendship these two were gonna have, and they accepted it.

"I'm not sure I'll ever understand them." JP said from behind them.

Sophia giggled. "You'll learn. I'm sure." Then turned her attention to Koichi. "How's your headache?" she asked.

"It's fine." Koichi gave a reassuring smile. "I think your soothing sound helped."

Sophia smiled back. "Glad I could help. But what was going on?"

"I'm really not sure. I felt there was so much...evil around." Koichi tried to explain. "I guess it was overwhelming."

"Not surprised. A digimon tainted by pure evil and then 2 others tainted by _that_ digimon. To me that would be like hearing multiple peoples thoughts at once..." Sophia quickly bit her tongue when she realized what she said.

Koichi stared at her. "You hear thoughts?"

Sophia just nodded. "Since we came to the digital world."

"It could have something to do with our elements." Koichi theorized.

"Could be..." Sophia's thoughts were cut short by a yawn. "Maybe we can think about it tomorrow..."

When they finally arrived back at their camp, they shoved their leaf-beds together to make it easier for Bakumon to send them good dreams. Bakumon took place in a tree just above their new sleeping place. Everyone fell asleep pretty quickly with Bakumon's help. Well, all except Koji of course, who decided to sleep away from the rest again.

"Now that is the way to sleep." Koji told himself. Maybe he should join- No. Don't be ridiculous.

He was watching them, waiting for sleep to get to him, when his D-Tector suddenly reacted to something. He pulled it out of his pocket, hearing the mysterious voice again.

"Your Beast Spirit awaits, Koji Minamoto. But first you have some growing to do."

What does she mean by that? Doesn't matter right now. What matters was his Beast Spirit. If the voice was right, then it should be close-by right? That's usually the case when someones D-Tector acts up.

He got up to leave, but paused in his step. Looking back, he saw the people he'd come to call his friends. He had to get his Beast Spirit, but...those guys.

"Urgh... I can't believe I'm reluctant to leave." he eyed Sophia. He knew he'd seen her with a notebook at least once. Leaving a note would do fine, right?

Making up his mind, he did just that. Although it felt so wrong to search a girl like that in her sleep, he got what he wanted. A quick note, nothing more. They didn't need to know more than what he wrote. He put the paper under a rock where he slept, surely they'd find it here. There, that should ease his mind. They knew he'd left for a reason now. One last glance at his friends and he left.

He hadn't been walking for long, when the forest became dark again. Looking up, he saw clouds had moved over the moons again. He knew what that meant. Oddly enough, even though the moons were completely covered by this point, there weren't any TVs on.

Scratch that. One was on. Curious as to why only one TV was on, he went to it. What he saw in the TV shocked him to the core. There was a woman, calling for Koichi. Asking people if they'd seen her son. Showing a picture of the same boy he'd been traveling with. The shocker was...this was _his_ mother. The woman his father claimed to be dead!

His mind was running. His mother was asking for Koichi. For her _son_. Koichi is her son, but so was he. So...that means... For the first time, he realized the similarities between them. Same face, same hair-well..color-wise, same eyes, skin tone and possibly so much more he wasn't seeing.

Koichi is his brother... His _twin_.

* * *

I love the fact I knew how to spell 'priority' back then, but couldn't spell 'towards' xD

*There was one TV that showed a city with a tower looming over it. I know it's not the Eiffel Tower, but I wanna have some creative fun~

**I looked up on the wikia page what Lobomon's weapons were called. They're called Licht Schwerten which is Light swords in German. Just a little trivia for you guys~

***Again going to Japanese for this. Power ring sounds dumb, I'll stick with holy ring.

Wasting a weight (Wasting _away_ ) xD Pff, I guess all I could think of was JP's weight back then.

-something- ( _Nutritious_ ) I could not, for the life of me, understand what Bokomon said there xD Looking back on it, that -something- kinda ruined the chapter.

Through wards ( _towards_ ) again!


	10. Can't keep a Grumblemon down

Hiya guys~

Before I start I'd just like everyone to know that I have no sense of distance. I don't know how long a few feet is, I don't know what a few inches is and I don't know centimeters or meters. It has nothing to to with not doing my research, I've just never been able to get an accurate feeling for measurements. (Heck, I once had to guess the length of a room and I guessed 6 meters. One. Room. Waaaaaay of.)

So try to keep that in mind when you read 'a few feet' multiple times ^^"

Anyways~ Hope you enjoy~

 **Disclaimer: Never gonna own digimon, never gonna own it's characters. I own Sophia, Sonamon, her Beast Spirit, any changes to the plot and characters that don't appear on the digimon wiki page.**

* * *

"Wake up you guys! Koji is gone!"

Zoe's cry was what everyone woke up to. Sure enough, Koji's sleeping spot was empty. The warriors panicked. What if someone took him? Was it another evil digimon? Why only take him? Would it come back?! Everyone scrambled to look for Koji, or for any clues of what happened.

"What if something bad happened to him?" Takuya panicked, running around to look for clues.

"Oh no!" Tommy cried. "Wait, what if something bad happens to us?!"

"Don't say that! You're scaring me- eh, scaring Zoe." No one was convinced by what JP said.

Zoe suddenly stopped when she saw something through the trees. "What's that?" Her voice shook as she asked the question.

The others followed her gaze, only to be blinded by the sun coming up.

"It's called 'the sun', Zoe." Takuya mocked the girl. "Good eye."

Meanwhile Sophia went over to Koji's sleeping spot to look for the note she knew he'd left. It was right on the leafs under a rock. "Guys, look. He left a note."

The others looked away from the imprints of Bokomon and Neemon in the leafs to turn to Sophia. They came over to her while she opened the paper.

" _I'm going on alone to find the Beast Spirit."_ it read.

Sophia raised an eyebrow at it. 'That's different...' She then paled when she noticed it was a page from her notebook, which was in the pocket of her jacket. Innocent sure, but who knew where that shifted to in her sleep?!

There was also a drawing of Bokomon and Neemon's faces under the text, indicating they tagged along.

There were mixed reactions about it. JP was annoyed and angered by the act , while Zoe was disappointed, but understanding about it. This group could be pretty stupid sometimes after all. As to demonstrate her point, JP ripped the note out of Sophia's hands and ripped it to pieces as 'revenge'.

Koichi was visibly heartbroken about it. He'd just gotten comfortable around his other half, and they'd just started to bond after what happened yesterday. Koji also seemed to finally accept he's part of the group, but now he up and left...again.

"Out looking for his Beast Spirit?" Takuya wondered out loud. "Well, no wonder Bokomon and Neemon are with him then."

Zoe, Koichi and Sophia eyed the gogglehead, wondering where this was going. To their surprise, he ran up to a bush and kicked it in frustration. "But you think Koji will bother to worry about protecting them? I doubt it!" He turned to the group with one of his famous smirks. "We're just gonna have to find them."

"But which way do we go?" Koichi asked.

Zoe looked around. "Yeah, he could've gone anywhere."

"Let's split up." Takuya suggested. "Make groups of 2 and go different directions. We're bound to find Koji somewhere."

So they did. Tommy went with Takuya one way, while JP went with Zoe. Zoe begged Sophia to switch partners, but the other girl was long gone with Koichi the remaining way.

Sophia sighed in relief. "Ehehe... Sorry Z. There's no way I'm going with JP." she muttered.

Koichi heard it though. "Do you have something against him?" he wondered.

"Not really... I mean, I'm sure he's a nice guy and all, but sometimes he just pisses me off." Sophia thought back to the Tsunomon incident and what he said at the Kokuwamon place before that. "When he does, I just need a break from him."

Koichi nodded, understanding. Sometimes you just had those people. The duo walked in comfortable silence for a long time, looking for any clues someone passed. There was nothing so far.

Another few minutes later, Koichi suddenly remembered something. "Sophia." he called the girl. "Do you think we can use the map to look for Koji?"

"Dunno." the brunette said as she came down from the tree. "But let's try." She pulled out the D-Tector and pressed the left center and golden middle button. Like before, the map showed up.

"Let's see. We're here." Sophia pointed to the violet and grey dots in the middle of the map. "And I'm guessing these are Takuya and Tommy." Her finger went over to the back where a red and light blue dot were barely visible.

Koichi quickly spotted a white dot closer by. Since Zoe and JP were together and in another direction, that could only mean one thing. "Koji..."

Sophia saw it as well. "Well, guess we chose the right way." she said. "Let's go!"

They followed the direction of the white dot. It wasn't too hard luckily. It was moving slow, probably walking speed, while the two of them ran. The dot even stopped at some point, allowing them to catch up with it.

"We should be close." Sophia said, seeing the small gap between the dots.

"Quickly now! Follow him."

That stopped Koichi and Sophia in their tracks. That was Bokomon! They looked at each other in understanding and took off again. When they stopped again, they were at the foot of a clearing. A couple feet ahead of them was a field of grass, taller then them. It was endless from left to right. In front of it was a small puddle of water and a bunch of rocks.

"Where did they go?" Koichi wondered out loud, looking left and right for his brother. There was a small wet spot next to the puddle, but that was their only clue that someone had been there.

Sophia eyed the D-Tector, but the map had disappeared now. Doesn't matter. There was only one way to go. "Maybe they went through the grass?" she suggested.

Koichi stopped looking around and instead went for the grass. Sure enough, upon inspection, it seemed disturbed. There were multiple patches of trampled grass. Footprints.

He turned to the girl. "I think you're right." He said, pointing out the footprints when she came closer.

"Well, let's go then." Sophia smiled.

Koichi quickly grabbed her hand before she stepped into the grass too far. "Is that such a good idea? The grass is pretty thick and tall. We can't see what's at the end or even what's right next to us."

"It'll be fine." Koichi didn't look convinced. "Fiiiine. What if I promise I won't run and we hold hands to not lose each other?"

Koichi still was hesitant. There could be anything out there. And the grass seemed to go on for miles. On the other hand, they needed to catch up with Koji. He was out there alone.

Finally, Koichi reluctantly nodded and let himself be dragged through the tall grass by his female companion. After a while of walking, and a whole bunch of stumbling and tripping, the duo reached the end of the grass. Immediately they backed away.

There was a big, frickin steep hill right at their feet. Oh, and even more tall grass at the bottom. Yay...grass.

"Well then." Koichi said, sounding oddly relieved. "Now we know what's at the end."

Sophia nodded. "Yeah. Really glad we didn't rush through it." She looked down to the bottom. "So now what? Do we jump?"

"No. There has to be an easier way down." Was Koichi's reply.

The dark haired boy began looking around the cliff side for a safer way down. Something like a bunch of sturdy rocks, or vines, or something! Sophia watched him look around for a bit, before deciding that maybe she should help. When their search led to nothing a few minutes later, Sophia made a rash decision.

"Koichi, we're not gonna find anything." she called. "I'm gonna jump." she paused for a second. 'Those were words I never expected to say...'

Koichi stopped looking for a safe way down and turned to the girl. Was she crazy?! A fall like that could seriously injure her! He quickly rushed over to stop her, grabbing her arm.

Before he could say anything about how dangerous that plan was, she's grabbed his arm back and jumped, taking him with her. They landed on the ground below hard, even sliding a few feet down until they hit a boulder. After the tumble, the duo just lay there, staring at the sky for a moment before daring to move again.

"That...was really dangerous." Koichi said, giving Sophia an angry look.

She just chuckled nervously. "Yeah, I know." she breathed. "Not my best idea, but look on the bright side. We're down."

Koichi shook his head. This girl... "Are you okay?" Even if she was nuts and just brought them in harms way, he was still concerned about any injuries.

Sophia stood up, stretching everything to feel for sore spots. "I'm okay. How about you?"

Koichi stood up as well, brushing himself off as he felt for anything that hurt. "Other than the scare you gave me, I'm fine."

After a few sheepish apologies the two warriors were on their way again. The map refused to show up, so that had to mean they were close, right? …Right? With a sigh, Sophia dropped the D-Tector back into her pocket. It was no use now.

It wouldn't be easy to find Koji out here. The grass came to your knees at the lowest and up to your shoulders at the highest point. There were also a ton of boulders and trees all around. The lone-wolf could be hiding behind anything if he really didn't want to be found. And there didn't seem to be any digimon around to ask for directions.

A few moments of fruitless searching passed. On Koichi's request they'd moved towards the mountains in the distance, claiming he had a feeling they should check there.

"I swear... When we find Koji I'm gonna kick his ass Spirit style..." Sophia said, breathless from all the impossible walking through impossibly tall grass.

"Please don't." Koichi pleaded. He was still his brother after all.

Sophia huffed in annoyance. "Fiiiine." she groaned. "I'll just punch him, or kick him, or maybe throw a pebble at his head."

Not long after she said that, there was an explosion that stopped the two in their tracks. It came from the mountains they were headed to. In the lower part of the biggest mountain was a huge chunk of data, the remains of the earth that had been there. It disappeared pretty quickly, allowing the part of the mountain above that to collapse to the ground.

"Koichi. Are you afraid of heights?" Sophia asked out of the blue. When the boy shook no, confused as to why she'd ask that question at a time like this, she took her D-Tector from her pocket. **"EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION! …SONAMON!"**

Now as Sonamon, she grabbed Koichi by his waist and flew him out of the grass, heading towards the sight of destruction.

Koichi, meanwhile, was too focused on the sight before him to be afraid of falling, knowing Sonamon's flight experience. There was something there. Something...dark. He felt it, and it felt familiar. They would have to fight soon, he knew it.

When they were close to the scene, and the grass finally went down to normal length, Koichi asked Sonamon to let him down. If a fight was gonna be inevitable he might as well be prepared.

" **EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION! …LOWEMON!"**

They were pretty much running/flying blind, until a loud bang was heard, followed by an explosion of blinding light.

"Koji!" Lowemon exclaimed, worried for his brother.

He ran ahead, heading straight for the area the light came from. It was difficult, though. As the light cleared, a wave of smoke and wind, as well as a small earthquake, made it hard to see and walk towards their destination.

Once it died down enough to be able to walk, the two warriors wasted no time finding their missing lone-wolf. Unfortunately the sight of Gigasmon halted that plan. They quickly ducked behind some trees. Luckily, Gigasmon didn't seem to have seen them, and continued jumping around from wreckage to wreckage.

"What do we do now?" Sonamon asked. "We can't look for Koji with Gigasmon there."

Lowemon looked at his fellow warrior. "Do you think you can fly and get a birds-eye view?"

Sonamon bit her lip. Sure, flying had been getting easier, but she wasn't sure if she trusted herself to fly more than she'd done already. What if she exhausts herself? That can happen right? Or if Gigasmon spots her? Or if her wings suddenly stop listening to her and she flies like before again?

Lowemon noticed the nervous glance in Sonamon's eyes. In an attempt to calm her down, he put a hand on her shoulder, prompting her to look at him. Once she did, he gave her a reassuring smile behind his mask, hoping it would come through. Sure enough, it did. Sonamon didn't need any words. Lowemon's eyes said it all. 'You can do this. I believe in you.'

"Fine. But if I fall and die, I'm coming back to haunt you."

Lowemon chuckled. "That's fair." He stood up from his hiding spot once Gigsmon left their hiding area. "I'll go look for Bokomon and Neemon."

"Be careful." Sonamon told him.

Lowemon nodded. "You too." And then left.

Taking a deep breath to calm her remaining nerves, Sonamon willed her wings to work and took off into the air. It was quite a bit of multitasking. Flying, keeping an eye out for Koji while also making sure Gigasmon doesn't spot her. But hey, that's what girls are rumored to be good at, right? Multitasking.

"Aha! There you are!"

Sonamon held back a screech upon hearing those words and quickly looked back at Gigasmon. Thankfully, he wasn't talking about her. Instead he looked down at something, completely the opposite way to where she was.

She let out a sigh of relief and quickly flew the way he wasn't looking. Unfortunately, that was he way Gigasmon decided to go a second later. She immediately flew a little higher to avoid getting in his sight. When Gigasmon stopped again to look around, Sonamon stopped as well. Was this the right place? Was Lobomon here?

After Gigasmon (presumably) taunted Lobomon again and left, a pile of rocks changed color and shifted. Gotsumon. And Lobomon was under him! Sonamon made a quick 360, seeing if Lowemon was around. There was no sign of him yet, but she had to get down to help the stubborn warrior.

The moment she landed on the ground she was met with Lobomon's glare.

"What are you doing here?" he growled.

"Finding you." Sonamon replied nonchalantly. "What are you doing here alone?"

"None of your business!" Lobomon growled again.

Sonamon held up her hands in mock-surrender. "Calm down wolfie. Gigasmon might hear you." She jumped up, floating next to Lobomon. "Let's just get out of here."

There was a little bit of arguing between the warriors and Gotsumon, who'd also joined in, before they got the injured warrior of light to move. They got to the part of the forest where Sonamon and Lowemon were hiding earlier. Lowemon was already waiting there with the two rookie digimon. He explained to them that he couldn't come find them. Gigasmon constantly had his hiding spot in his line of sight.

Lobomon couldn't keep his eyes off the dark warrior after what he'd learned last night. He couldn't really be his brother, right? And what if he was? That would mean his father lied to him. Lied to him for lord knows how long! How would you even act like a brother? Sure he had _some_ practice with Tommy, but that wouldn't help him. Koichi was a completely different person from Tommy.

"-bomon. Lobomon... Koji!" On the third name call, the warrior reacted. It was Lowemon who'd called his name. "Koji, are you alright?"

Lobomon quickly looked away from him, scowling. "I'm fine." he snapped. Damn him and his concern. Making him feel...guilty?

Both warriors stared at him, not believing for a second that he was fine. They were proven right when, a second later, Lobomon turned back to Koji with bruises covering his body.

"Oh yeah, totally fine. Just like I've completely mastered flying." Sonamon mocked. "Gimme a break."

With a lot of struggling on Koji's part, Sonamon picked up Koji and put Bokomon on her back, while Lowemon picked up Neemon and Gotsumon. With some hesitation Gotsumon pointed the warriors the way to the Gotsumon safety area. It was a deserted area, and the hiding spot was a cave hidden behind a boulder.

As soon as the boulder was placed back over the entrance, the warriors of darkness and sound turned back to their human forms. They sat own next to Koji, who'd already collapsed on the floor earlier.

"Are you alright?" Bokomon asked Koji. "Is there anything _we_ can do?"

"No." Koji said bluntly.

But Gotsumon would have nothing of it. "This'll make you feel better." he said, throwing th boy a clam shell with some kind of substance in it.

"I don't need anyone's help." Koji told the rock-digimon. While grateful, he wasn't too thrilled he had to be saved by that Gotsumon.

Koichi and Sophia were uncomfortably watching the exchange between Koji and Gotsumon. Should they...do anything?

"Some Legendary warrior." Gotsumon snapped at Koji, which finally got a reaction out of him that wasn't snappie. "And the rest of you are no better!"

That also got a hurt reaction out of the other two warriors. Sophia stood up from her place, heading for the door.

"Where are you going?" Koichi asked her.

Sophia turned to him, showing her D-Tector. "I'm just gonna call the others. They should probably know that we found Koji."

"Oh sure. Go ahead and call them." Koji mocked. "I told you, I don't need any help! I don't need their help, and I especially don't need your help!"

"YES YOU DO!" Sophia screamed. "You proved that today! You would've died if Gotsumon hadn't saved you and you would've died multiple times if someone else didn't have your back! Stop acting like a whiny emo bitch and just accept it!"

After her outburst, she stormed out like Gotsumon had earlier, ignoring the other Gotsumon talking behind her back. She didn't stop walking until she had cooled down a little, after which she went to sit on a flat rock. Releasing a sigh, she took a look at her D-Tector. Very nice, saying she was going to contact the others with no idea how to.

Sonamon appeared on her screen, just staring like the image she was. Yet, somehow it felt like Sonamon was actually looking at her, like she could listen...and talk.

"Don't suppose you know how to contact the others." she said out loud.

' _Center right, middle.'_

There it was again! The same voice from before. The voice who told her how to summon the map. Not questioning it again, she pressed said buttons and hoped to get the right person. She watched the screen. Black... Static... Static... White... White...- with the symbol of flame! Takuya!

"Takuya! Hey, Takuya. Can you hear me?"

" _Huh? What the-? My D-Tector?"_ There was some shuffling on the other side. _"Hello? Sophia, is that you?"_

Sophia nodded, before realizing he couldn't see that. "Yeah, it's me." she said. "We found Koji. Where are you?"

" _We met up with Zoe and JP earlier and are now following your path. At least, I think we are."_

Sophia pressed the buttons to make the map appear, hoping her idea would work. It didn't. "Can't say. But if you are, be careful. Grumblemon is in the area.

" _Grumblemon?!"_ Came the shout of all four warriors.

"Yeah." Sophia replied. "He destroyed the mountain home of some digimon and pretty much beat up Koji."

" _Takuya, look."_ Tommy piped up.

" _Hn?"_ There was a moment of silence on the other side of the call. _"Hey Soph. Was that mountain in between two other mountains?"_

"Yeah, why?"

" _In that case, we're on the right path."_ Takuya said. _"I guess we'll meet up with you three in a bit."_

That was all Takuya said before the call ended.

"Right, us three..." Sophia sighed.

 _~Koji and Koichi - After Sophia left- ~_

"And there _she_ goes." one of the Gotsumon said, watching the human girl leave. "Must have rocks in her head too."

"Who knows, maybe she's off to find that Spirit too."

That caught both boys' attention, but none more than Koji's. "The Spirit?!"

He quickly stood up, only to collapse from pain a second later. Koichi was there to stop him from doing it again. "Koji, calm down. You're in no condition to move."

"But I've got to find it!" Koji snapped at the other boy. "If Grumblemon gets it I'll never be able to stop him!"

Koichi was unfazed by his outburst, and just pulled him back into a comfortable sitting position. "I understand, but recklessly throwing yourself into a fight when you're still injured will help no one." he said, grabbing the clam shell.

Koji wanted nothing more but throw it out of Koichi's hands when it was presented to him. But...the look in Koichi's eyes convinced him otherwise. Without a word or a glance, he took the shell and started rubbing the substance on every sore spot he could reach, including his stomach, which had him collapse just a second ago.

"We were really concerned when you weren't there when we woke up." Koichi's voice startled Koji a little, not that he'd ever admit that. "We thought you'd been captured."

"I left a note." Koji stated bluntly.

"I know, but..." Koichi hesitated for a moment. This was the first real conversation with his brother. He didn't want to ruin this. "Why didn't you wait? We could've gone out to find your Spirit together. Don't you trust us?"

The words stung, but Koji didn't understand why. "No."

Koichi's breath was caught. How? Why..why didn't he? What did they do? "Why not?"

Koji snorted. "Last time I trusted someone, they ended up lying to me about everything." Why was he telling him this?!

Koichi understood though. Being lied to about being an only child. Not only that, but being a twin? He had a hard time trusting his mother too. "That can be tough."

"How would you know?!" Koji immediately regretted those words. This was his brother, if he himself had been lied to about being an only child, of course Koichi had been too. Otherwise they wouldn't be in this situation. But-wait..did he know they'd been lied to like that?

Koichi took a deep breath. What's the worst that can happen? He already knows, right? Oh man, there is no way this will go well, but he had to. Maybe he wouldn't even notice? Alright, here goes nothing.

"I was lied to about being an only child."

There was complete silence in the room. Even the Gotsumon were quiet. As if reading the mood, the digimon moved away from the boys, leaving them to talk.

Finally Koji broke the silence. "You too, huh?" His voice only softened a little, but still held the harshness to it. Koichi nodded. He seemed on edge, Koji noticed. "Dad told me mom died." He told Koichi, who looked shocked at the information. "But I saw her in TV-Forest, alive and well."

Koichi was speechless. He'd expected the part where he wasn't told about having a brother, but being told your mother is dead while she's not?

"The strangest part is... She was calling for you."

Koichi froze. He knew. He chanced a glance at Koji, but his expression was unreadable. Was he angry? Did he not care? Did he hate him? Koichi dared not ask.

Koji sighed at the lack of answer. "You knew then?" Koichi barely managed to nod.

Without another word, Koji stood up. This time Koichi didn't hold him back, not that it was necessary. The oily substance was apparently fast working, as there were only small aches here and there, but nothing too severe. He went to the entrance, pushing away the rock. He looked behind him, seeing Koichi still in the same position, maybe with his shoulders more sagged.

"Are you coming or what?" he asked.

Koichi's head shot up. He was sure Koji wanted to leave to be away from him, why would he... "You're...not mad at me?"

"You? No." He really wasn't. After all, it couldn't be easy telling someone you don't know and who doesn't know you that you're brothers. "Dad however..."

The Gotsumon had been kind enough to point out where that one Gotsumon claimed the Spirit was located. It was a cliff-side area passed the half-destroyed mountains and a forest. There were three huge stone heads, which were covered in moss, indicating it must be old. The heads were in a triangle all looking away from the middle. Upon closer inspection, Koichi noticed two of the three had a single gem-eye.

Bokomon had already pulled Neemon ahead to look at the one statue without a gem. Apparently he'd noticed it as well.

"They said that there's an inscription, but I don't see anything." the gnome digimon said, touching the indent on the statue.

Koji and Koichi went closer to have a look themselves, when they noticed what was on the stone Bokomon and Neemon were touching. It was the mark of Lobomon.

Bokomon had noticed it as well. "I wonder if that means that Koji's Beast Spirit is here somewhere."

Neither of the twins said anything, still a little uncomfortable now that the truth was out. Koji just silently grabbed his D-Tector and started pressing buttons. Who knows, maybe the D-Tector will sense the Spirit. He ignored the way Bokomon and Neemon talked about what he was doing and focused on the device alone.

"Anything?" Bokomon eventually asked him.

Koji looked up at the gaping hole of the statue. "Not yet." he said.

He grumbled. Last night the lady from the D-Tector told him the Beast Spirit was close, and now it can't even find the thing? What was going on? What was he doing wrong?

 _~Sophia~_

Sophia had Spirit Evolved to Sonamon and took flight to find the others. She took her time though. After that argument with Koji, she wasn't exactly eager to get back. It was quite a way actually, she had only just passed the mountain. You know, the mountain that Gigasmon destroyed and possibly ate the data from.

The warrior grumbled when she passed the invisible border that led to the waaaaay too long grass. While it did mean she was getting closer to her friends, (or...were they her friends?) it also meant that once she landed, it would be impossible to walk again.

"Hey, look up there! Sonamon!"

'Huh?'

She had been so lost in annoyance that she'd completely overlooked the others. Takuya, the one who called, was waving her down, which she did.

"Hey, where are the others?" Takuya asked, looking around to see if he could spot Koji, Koichi and the digimon companions anywhere.

Sonamon shrank a little. "I... had an argument with Koji, so I left on my own."

"You left them alone?" Takuya frowned at her.

"Technically not, they have each other, and their Spiri-" She cut herself off. Something was approaching.

" **TECTONIC SLAM!"**

Gigasmon came down, creating another earthquake when he slammed the ground. A thick cloud of smoke came up as well, creating the perfect hiding spot for the warriors who barely managed to dodge Gigasmon's attack.

"Alright! Who to be first beaten up real good?" Gigasmon asked in his broken English.

Wasting no time, everyone who wasn't digiolved yet took out their D-tectors.

"Me!"

"No, me!"

"Me too!"

"And me!"

"Bring it, big nose!"

" **EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION!…AGUNIMON!"**

" **EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION!… KAZEMON!"**

" **EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION!… BEETLEMON!"**

" **EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION!…KUMAMON!"**

"You want me fight? You guys not learn quick, do you?" Gigasmon mocked the warriors.

" **P** **Y** **RO PUNCH!"** *

" **TEMPEST TWIST!"**

" **THUNDER FIST!"**

" **FROZEN TUNDRA!"** **

" **MICRO ROCKETS!"**

The attacks hit. Well... sort off. They did hit the target, but Gigasmon merely brushed them off like it was nothing, which it probably was. The Beast Spirit was stronger than the combined attacks of 5 Human Spirit warriors.

" **QUAGMIRE TWISTER!"**

Gigasmon's attack send everyone flying away from him before actually going flying. The attack created a tornado which swept everybody up. It proved to be too much for Kumamon as, soon after being hit, his Fractal Code appeared. Gigasmon noticed and took this chance to take his Spirit.

He stopped twisting and jumped up towards Kumamon. He got ready for the finishing blow, when all of a sudden Kazemon appeared. She pushed Kumamon out of the way for the prize of getting hit instead. And since she pretty much flew into the blow, it came even harder.

"Kazemon!" Kumamon cried, drawing everyone's attention to her.

Where Kumamon just had his data showing, Kazemon's figure turned black and had her Spirit showing in front of her. Apparently this was the result Gigasmon was looking for. He jumped towards Kazemon again, this time just in front, and ate her Spirit, turning the warrior back to Zoe. Now no longer supported by her wings, Zoe fell to the ground.

"Zoe!" Beetlemon called out in worry.

"He got her Spirit!" Agunimon exclaimed, equally as worried.

"Zoe! No!" Kumamon called, stretching out his arm to her.

Agunimon and Beetlemon jumped out of the grass, trying to attack Gigasmon as revenge for their friend. Nobody takes their Spirits and gets away with it!

Unfortunately Gigasmon had other ideas. **"SLIDE EVOLUTION!"** Now once again Grumblemon, he slammed his two hammers into the two approaching warriors.

Unable to stop themselves, they were hit and fell to the ground. The hammers combined with the previous attack caused enough damage to them to have their data show. Not just data, but their Spirits as well.

"More tasty Spirits for me!" Grumblemon looked at the Spirits of Agunimon and Beetlemon hungrily.

Sonamon finally got up off the ground. 'I've gotta help. He's in Human Spirit now, my attacks should have more effect!'

She jumped up behind him, readying an attack, when Lobomon appeared from above. "Why don't you taste this first?" He had one of his lasers pointed to the corrupted warrior. **"HOWLING LASER!"**

Lowemon jumped up out of the grass as well. **"SHADOW METEOR!"**

"Nice recipe. But I think it misses one more ingredient." Sonamon released the microphones off her wrists, grabbed them and slammed them together. **"SONAR BOOM!"** Soundwaves went flying towards Grumblemon.

The attack was blinding, thanks to Lobomon, but the light warrior could see the attacks all hit. He landed in front of Grumblemon, who still seemed completely unharmed, and grabbed him by the... Where did he grab him? The strap? The armor?

"How'd you like that?" He asked the somehow unharmed warrior.

Grumblemon just grinned. "Not too bad." He said, but other than that he wasn't doing anything.

"What's the matter?" Lobomon asked him with an uncaring and sarcastic tone in his voice. "Don't you want my Spirit anymore?"

"Still got couple tricks up sleeve!" Grumblemon said in a sing-along voice.

That's when Lobomon found out his reason for smirking. Grumblemon took his hammers and swung them at Lobomon's head, intending on crushing his skull. Luckily Lobomon was quick to dodge, but not without worrying his brother.

Lobomon lifted his foot as he leaned backwards to avoid the hammer. "Now here's some magic for you." He kicked a confused Grumblemon square in the face, sending him flying backwards.

Immediately after, Lobomon fled the scene. He left Sonamon and Lowemon to look after the other warriors, right now he had to lead Grumblemon, who'd slide evolved into Gigasmon by now, away from the de-Spirit evolved warriors.

"He's gone now." JP said as soon as Gigasmon was out of view. "You okay?" he asked Zoe.

Everyone turned to him, seeing him and Tommy kneeling down in front of Zoe. The girl was staring in defeat at her shoes, holding her D-Tector.

"Yeah, I guess." she answered after a while. She held up the lavender and pink device up to her face, staring at the static on the screen. "It's just... What good am I to you guys now?"

Lowemon, who hadn't been there during their fight with Gigasmon, stared in confusion at the device. The static on the screen unnerved him. Wasn't it supposed to be either black or show your Spirit? Better yet, what did she mean by 'being good to them'?

More explosions farther into the mountains caught everyone's attention. Looks like Lobomon might not be doing too well. Lowemon and Sonamon looked at each other, then at the injured humans.

"Don't look at us." Takuya commented. "We'll be fine, it's Koji who needs help. So just go."

The evolved duo nodded and went to where the explosions were coming from. They caught sight of Lobomon and Gigasmon fighting in a smoke cloud. It would be difficult to help the warrior of light. It was hard to see in there. One wrong move and they could end up hitting the wrong digimon.

Waiting for the cloud to disappear was torture. Luckily they didn't need to wait too long. Soon after arriving at the scene, Lobomon burst out of the smoke cloud, unfortunately with Gigasmon right on his tail.

Even worse, Gigasmon was in the middle of his **quagmire twister** attack, hitting Lobomon twice, which send him flying towards the stone statues. That's some power. From where Lowemon and Sonamon were, they could clearly see the Fractal Code ring surrounding Lobomon's body, and they knew Gigasmon would go straight for that.

"Oh no, you don't!" Sonamon shouted. **"SONAR BOOM!"**

" **SHADOW LANCE!"**

While the attacks did gain Gigasmon's attention for a little bit, he merely threw the lance back at Lowemon and brushed off the soundwaves. Apparently Lobomon was a bigger target to him than they'd expected. They kept following, however, throwing attack after attack at him in hopes of slowing him down even a little. Especially after noticing that Lobomon had turned into a dark silhouette. Finally Gigasmon seemed to have enough of it and threw a punch at Lowemon who, just like Lobomon, went flying.

"Koichi!" Sonamon yelled out in worry.

She flew to him. His Fractal Code was showing, just like Koji's. Wasting no time, she picked up the warrior, although clumsily, and flew him to where Bokomon and Neemon were. She'd flown past Gigasmon, so all there was to do was wait and defend as best she could as Gigasmon got closer and closer.

"Gotsumon." she addressed the rock digimon. "If you're thinking about helping, then please do." When she saw the digimon's confused stare, she continued. "We haven't been the Legendary Warriors for long. We lack the strength they once had, and their fighting experience. Every bit of help is great." she stopped for a minute, processing what she'd just said. 'Where the heck did that come from?!'

She was pulled from her thoughts when suddenly Gotsumon was on the move. He'd jumped off the statue and was using **Rock Fist** to keep Gigasmon from attacking Lobomon. Lobomon finally turned back into Koji, saving him from getting his Fractal Code eaten, and immediately after regaining consciousness had a jewel thrown at him.

"Hey!" Gotsumon called, turning Koji's gaze from the jewel to the digimon. Put that -ng- in the statue! Hurry!"

"But why?" Is now really a good time to question things, Koji?!

Gotsumon, through grunts and struggles, explained. "When the third eye shines, the Legendary Spirit will awaken. Take it!"

"The Spirit? Why would you do this for me?" Koji didn't understand. But Gotsumon couldn't explain, as immediately following his question, Gigasmon started pounding on the rock-like digimon. "Stop it!" Koji yelled.

"Hurry! Do it!" Gotsumon yelled at Koji, still being pounded on.

Something in Koji's eyes changed as he went from astounded to determined. He was gonna awaken the Spirit! _His_ Spirit! He grabbed onto a stray piece of moss, at least I think it's moss, and swung to the eye of the statue. He took the jewel and placed it in the hole. The effect was immediate.

The ground shook violently, snapping the plant Koji was holding onto and sending him sliding over the nose and onto the ground.*** The jewels on all three statues glowed and a glowing hole opened on each top. They simultaneously turned around. Everybody was anxious about what was happening, even Gigasmon stopped fighting at that moment.

The heads stopped turning once they all faced the direction of Gigasmon and Gotsumon, who were both in the way of whatever the statues focused on. A beam shot out of the three jewel eyes, missing Gotsumon by a hair (if he had any), and hitting Gigasmon instead. The beams all hit the same spot a little bit away, creating a small field of light.

The other warriors and some Gotsumon arrived just in time to see the ground break apart and reveal the Beast Spirit of light.

"Koji, your D-Tector!"

Huh? Koji looked at the D-Tector in his hand. It was glowing and beeping. It was reacting to the Spirit. It really is his!

"So this is your Beast Spirit?" Koichi asked from behind Koji.

He didn't answer. He didn't react to anyone or anything. Only the Spirit. The more he looked at it, the more he felt it calling him. This Beast Spirit meant more power. Power he could use to beat Gigasmon. He would pay for beating up Gotsumon, and his friends!

"Beast Spiriiiit!" he shouted, completely in trance by the Spirit.

He pointed his D-Tector at it as it began flying over to him. Just like Lobomon, the Beast Spirit was absorbed into the D-Tector and ready for use.

" **EXECUTE! BEAST SPIRIT EVOLUTION! ...KENDOGARURUMON!"**

With a mighty howl, the data streams parted to reveal the Beast Spirit of light. While there was talking all around him, the digimon didn't seem effected. In fact, he hardly seemed responsive at all. There was an odd white glaze in his eyes, Koichi noted.

He walked up to KendoGarurumon. "Koji?" he asked carefully.

He was met with another roar. The wheels on his feet dropped, and Koichi could just barely jump out of the way as KendoGarurumon sped past his and against one of the statues.

"Oh no! Koji can't control the Beast Spirit yet." Bokomon said, stepping away as the wolf slammed his body into another statue.

Koichi ran in front of KendoGarurumon, spreading his arms to stop him. "Koji, please, get a hold of yourself." he pleaded, hoping his words would get through. "You might end up hurting someone."

Koji didn't hear him through KendoGarurumon's feral control. He charged at the boy with another growl. Sonamon swooped the short haired twin out of the way just in time.

"Koji! Don't you know who he is?! Don't you remember who _we_ are?!" she yelled at him without thinking.

Something flickered in KendoGarurumon's eyes. The glaze lessened a little, but immediately returned when the beast noticed Gigasmon running at him. The fight mode was activated again as the beasts charged at each other.

"Now this will be big." Bokomon dragged Neemon along as he fled the battle scene. After all, the power of two Beast Spirits, especially one who can't it yet, is sure to leave some destruction.

Sonamon took the gnome's advice for the first time and also fled, still carrying Koichi.

Sure enough, as soon as the beasts made contact, shit went down. It was unclear to the other warriors due to the light, but presumably they both used a powerful attack of sorts which caused a huge part of the cliff to break and fall into the sea below. This included the stone statues, Gigasmon and almost KendoGarurumon.

Worried cries rang out. Luckily for the human warriors, KendoGarurumon, through some miracle, managed to hold on to the cliff-side and climb back on. Right when he reached the top, the Beast Spirit drained the last bit of his energy, reverting him back to Koji.

"That Spirit...sure takes...a lot out of a guy." was all Koji managed to say before his strength gave away.

He lost his grip on the cliff as he almost fainted, and he fell backwards. He was going to fall into the water! At least he would've, if Gotsumon hadn't grabbed his hand last second. It was a great thing for the warriors to hear them converse about the true meaning of being a hero. About it not being 'doing everything yourself and never have to ask for help' but rather the opposite. Koichi couldn't be happier to hear that. It was about time his brother learned that lesson.

Speaking of... He took a glance at the gang. How were they going to tell them? ...Know what? It can wait. Right now they had to get over the awkwardness of discovering they're brothers.

Everyone watched as Koichi went over to Koji, who'd just gotten back onto safe land, and talk with the guy. It actually seemed to go pretty well. Sonamon also finally de-Spirit evolved, panting from exhaustion. Even so, she couldn't help but smile when she saw the brothers having a decent talk.

'They seem to get along better than when I left. Wonder what happened?'

* * *

I got a writers block on SOOO MANY POINTS in this chapter.

So yeah. I actually believe that the reason almost everyone lost control of their Beast Spirit, is because they desired more power, or revenge, or something like that. Anything that makes them feel anger.

Anger and hurt can make an animal more feral and possibly prone to attack even comrades (DO NOT quote me on this).

*I know he says Pyro Tornado, but the animation clearly shows Pyro Punch. I don't have the Japanese episode to go on, since they don't say their attack names in that scene.

**Again, animation suggests a different attack. That and the fact that he comes in close, when Crystal Freeze is a far range attack does suggest a dub error where it's supposed to be Frozen Tundra, which is a close range attack. :3 (Maybe I'm thinking too much into this...)

***Anyone else think this was weirdly animated?

Through wards (towards) Get used to this...

High (height)

Show (shot)


	11. A Hunka Hunka Burninggreymon

Hiya guys~

Sorry for the wait. I know I usually upload a new chapter on the last day of the month or the first of the new month, but I just couldn't find the motivation to do that this time.

I've just been stuck in the procrastination corner for like...3 weeks and I dont know how to get out. 'Just keep writing' doesn't work for me, that's for sure. And honestly I'm feeling kind of bad about it. If anyone has any tips about procrastinating, please LET ME KNOW!

Anyways, hope you enjoy.

 **Disclaimer: Yeah I own Digimon...in a dream...that I had like...2 weeks ago. *yawn* I need more sleep... I do however own Sophia, Sonamon, her Beast Spirit, any and all changed that stray from the canon and any characters that aren't mentioned on the wiki page.**

* * *

"Isn't it nice to have a moment of peace and quiet?" Bokomon voiced his thoughts out loud.

It was true though. It was quite nice to take a moment to just sit around. And in such a beautiful part of the forest too. Quiet and peaceful. Just what they needed after such a bad series of battles. Especially the one thy had earlier that day. That one was brutal.

"Let's have some fun and play charades." Neemon broke the silence. Well, actually Bokomon did, but he broke it more.

Bokomon rolled his eyes at him. "I thought you said fun."

Neemon, however, ignored this. "I've always wanted to try that thing where I'm trapped in an imaginary box." He said as he started playing with a nearby Tanemon.

"Oh, if only the box were real." the white digimon sighed.

"There goes our moment of peace..." Sophia sighed.

Tommy had been sitting there stuck in thoughts for a while now. They finally came out now. "Oh man... I really messed up."

It came a bit out of the blue, and it confused Koji and Koichi.

"What do you mean, Tommy?" Koichi asked gently.

Tommy raised his head from the ground a little to look at the older boy. Of course... He hadn't been there. "It's because of me that Zoe lost her Spirit." the younger boy told him. "I'm really sorry."

"It's okay, Tommy." Zoe tried to console the boy. "What happened wasn't your fault."

"The only one to blame is Gigasmon." Sophia added her own thoughts.

JP saw the broken look on Zoe's face, and he didn't like it. "Well, the next time I see that guy, I'll get your Spirit back. Even if I have to do it by myself." He said, acting as brave as he could. No one was going to mess with his girl's feelings!

"Why would you wanna do something like that?" Neemon asked him.

Sophia snorted. "To score date point with Zoe." JP glared at her, clearly not finding the humor in that joke.

"Based on your last encounter, I don't think that would be very wise." Bokomon criticized his plan.

"So what?!" JP slammed his fist into the ground right next to Bokomon, which send the small digimon falling over. "It sure beats sitting around here doing nothing!" Debatable. "She needs me help!"

"What are we? Chopped liver?" Sophia questioned.

"You have a one track mind, buddy." Takuya remarked. He stood up and looked JP straight in the eye. "We can't just run around and fight. We have to get to the Forest Terminal."

"So what? Then we'll just let him win?" JP stood up too, to be on more equal height with Takuya, rather then being looked down upon. "I can't just sit back and let Grumblemon run around with Zoe's Spirit."

"It's okay, JP." Though it really wasn't. All this talk about Zoe's Spirit only made the girl miss Kazemon more. She took out her D-Tector to see the static screen. How badly she wanted to see Kazemon's face there, staring back at her. 'You never know how much you'll miss something till it's gone.'

A few close by Tanemon ran up to the girl, sensing her sadness, and tried to cheer her up. But it really didn't work.

"No, it's really not okay, Zoe." JP broke her train of thought. "The Spirit of wind is yours, and you were destined to find it. So we're gonna get it back for you."

That was...oddly wise coming from JP. If this is how he is when he's not thinking about food-

"Nice sentiment." Koji spoke up. "But we have more important things to do than fight a battle we can't win." Yikes...

"That was unnecessa-"

"What is your problem, Koji?!" JP cut Koichi off mid-sentence. "You'd be going crazy if your Spirit was stolen." Koji's only response was a glare. JP took this as his cue to go on and keep mocking the dark haired boy. "But, hey. I understand if you're scared. Even the great Koji has no chance against Grumblemon."

"What?!" Koji snapped.

JP continued though. "Who cares if you have your Beast Spirit? You can't even control it!

"Hey, stop it!" "Please, calm down." "Knock it off, JP." Tommy, Koichi and Takuya tried to calm the situation down, unsuccessfully.

JP looked away from the warriors in front of him. "I guess I'm the only one who wants to help Zoe!"

"JP, stop it!" Sophia snapped, in her panic state again. "Of course we want to help, but you know we can't beat Grumblemon when he's got his Beast Spirit!"

"It sure doesn't sound like you want to help!" JP yelled at her. "Is this how you always treat your friends? Not helping in time of need? No wonder they treated you just as badly!"

 _*SLAP*_

The sound of flesh meeting flesh echoed through the forest. JP slowly traced the sore spot where a red hand print was making itself known, while Sophia stared at the ground. Her hand still outstretched, while her hair covered her eyes.

"You..." Her voice sounded cold. "You know nothing about me!" she screamed, looking up and revealing the tears in her eyes. "Don't you dare pretend you know anything about me!"

After her tantrum, she ran off into the forest, leaving a stunned group of kids behind. The one who snapped out of it first was Zoe, who ran after the brunette quickly. She found her not too far away, but not close enough to be seen or heard, crying underneath a tree. And stripping bark from a twig for...some reason*.

The blonde sat down next to her. "Hey, are you okay?" Sophia shook her head, gripping the twig harder. "Don't listen to JP. You said it yourself, he knows nothing."

"Doesn't mean it doesn't hurt." Sophia said in a squeaky voice.

Zoe gave her a sad smile, and leaned in to give her a sort of half hug. It was awkward, since they were still pretty unfamiliar with each other, but it helped a little.

"It wasn't because I treated others badly... They bullied me because I was different." Sophia said, a little out of the blue, but Zoe deserved to know. "I have autism, so I can't help it... Heck I don't even realize I'm acting different until hours later." Zoe quietly listened to her talking, feeling like this was something she had to let out. "Heh, and that guy thinks I treated friends badly? Heh... What friends? I don't have friends."

"You have us." Zoe told her. "Or me, at least." Sophia looked at her with a stare of disbelieve. "Maybe we're both a bit rusty when it comes to friendship, but I'm sure we can learn. Right?"

For a moment they just looked at each other in silence. Zoe waiting for an answer, and Sophia unsure if this was real. Zoe seemed truthful. Seeing her doubt, Zoe gave the older girl a kind smile. She really means this. Otherwise why would she come running after her?

Finally, Sophia smiled too. "Thanks Zoe."

The blonde girl smiled and stood up, holding out her hand to Sophia. "Let's go back. I'm sure the others are waiting for us."

Sophia nodded as she took the hand. "Heh... You lead, I kinda ran blind."

When they got back there was just complete awkward silence. JP refused to look at anyone except Zoe, who in turn refused to look at him. Everyone else averted their eyes from the girls and JP as well. It was just...awkward.

Until Bokomon coughed. "I think it's time to do something more productive then stand here and argue." Even though they weren't arguing anymore, they could see his point. "My friends, I believe the time has finally come."

"Has come for what?" "What do you mean?" JP and Zoe asked the gnome digimon.

"Time to show you the path of wisdom." Bokomon said, kind of cryptically, which confused the humans. But at least it caught their attention. "Wisdom is a path which is not easily walked. You must think about every choice, consider every option and know where each step will lead." Immediately after uttering that last part, he lost footing and fell on the ground, face first. "It seems that wisdom has landed in a mud puddle."

JP crossed his arms, clearly not impressed by what Bokomon was talking about. "So what's your 'wise solution'?"

"Fortune telling." Bokomon told him, like it was the most obvious thing ever.

"Fortune telling?"

What good would fortune telling do them? Help them decide what to do? They knew what they had to do. Go to the Forest Terminal. ...But then again, they also needed to find their Beast Spirits. A-and get back Zoe's Spirit.

On one hand, the message to go to the Forest Terminal sounded urgent and should be their main goal, but on the other hand...what if they ran into Grumblemon on the way? Or any of the other possibly evil warriors. Did they have their Beast Spirits? Assuming they did, the gang would need their Beast Spirits to fight them.

Maybe a little fortune telling wouldn't hurt. So it was decided. Bokomon led the way to Fortuneteller Village, talking about some digimon named Shamanmon. Presumably the gang was going to pay that digimon a visit.

When the warriors finally arrived, it was clear to see where the town got its name from. Everywhere you looked were fortuneteller tents, which looked a lot like small circus tents, and digimon wanting to go in there.

There were tents run by Jijimon, Babamon, Ponchomon, an Etemon and Bakumon duo, RedVegiemon and Vegiemon duo, Soulmon and even a fresh level digimon, Mokumon. And it was _busy_!

Tommy looked around in awe. All these digimon, and all these fortunetellers. "Wow. I've never had my fortune told before."

"Welcome to the club." Sophia smiled.

"I had my palm read once." Neemon said. "I took a week to get the pain off."

JP still didn't seem convinced. Fortune telling, what a joke. "Come on. Do you actually think any of these weirdos can tell the future?"

"JP, these are digimon with powers we have no idea about. It's very possible at least a few can tell the future." Sophia told him with a dry tone.

They went on through the town, stopping every once in a while to look at another fortune teller. There was a drunk Gekomon somewhere, which was an obvious fake. Then they saw a Sepikmon, who's 'Carry wood method' was just...bad. There were many more like that.

There was also this one tent, which had a Wizardmon in front, that seemed a lot less popular. Digimon just went past it, several times sometimes, and Wizardmon watched all of them.

Takuya walked up to one of the digimon that was walking past Wizardmon. "Hey, what's up with this guy?"

"You mean you don't know?" the digimon, Terriermon, asked him in disbelief. "This is the most accurate fortuneteller in this whole town. Everyone wants their fortune read by him."

Zoe, Sophia and Koichi also came up to the digimon. "Then why is everyone walking past him like that? Shouldn't they go in?" Zoe asked the bunny-like digimon.

"Wow, you really are new." Terriermon groaned. "You can't just walk in. You have to be chosen." When the humans stared at him in confusion, Terriermon explained further. "Wizardmon there keeps an eye on all digimon. He's got an eye for futures and will pick one he deems important enough. It's rare to be chosen by him, but it never stops digimon from walking by multiple times." he chuckled. "It never works. That's why most usually go for Shamanmon or one of the other real fortunetellers."

"Woah, he must be good then." Takuya said in awe.

He didn't waste another second and ran past Wizardmon. Sure enough, Wizardmon's eyes followed him, but took no action. The others, once everyone arrived, tried as well. But no luck. They looked back at the digimon once all the warriors and even Bokomon and Neemon had passed him. He was keeping an eye on them, but there was no movement.

"Guess we're not that lucky." Takuya said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.

Zoe nodded. "Guess not."

They were ready to just move on and get to Shamanmon, when...

"Yes you are."

Startled by the sudden voice, they quickly turned around. Wizardmon had stood up and was now right in front of them. "At least one of you is." He held out his hand to Sophia. "Wisemon wishes to speak with you."

Wizardmon didn't waste a second listening to any of the other humans and simply took the girl away to the tent. He led her inside, closed the curtains and then watched the entrance. Sophia was unnerved there. Who was Wisemon? Why pick her?

She took in her surroundings. There wasn't much light, which added to the creep-factor, but she could make out a desk type of structure at the back. There were two candles on either side of it and a cloth covering it. A shadow sat behind the desk. That was probably Wisemon.

"H-hello?" Great... Stuttering.

The dark shape moved a little to reveal two yellow dots in the darkness. "Please, come closer, human child. I will not harm you, I am not wild." Wisemon said with a gentle voice.

Sophia did as the digimon said and went up to the desk. There was a pillow in front of it which she didn't notice before. The moment she sat down on it, the candles flared up and lit the place. The light revealed a humanoid digimon in dark robes and a light cloth wrapped around his head allowing only two yellow dot-eyes to be shown. There was also a book on the table and two orbs floating in circles around the digimon.

Before Sophia could utter a word, Wisemon spoke. "You do not understand why you were called to here. Please allow me to make it clear." Sophia nodded, voice caught in her throat. "You are different from your friends, I feel. There is an aura around you, which you cannot conceal."

The two orbs stopped spinning once they were on either side of the digimon. A light beam shot out of them, encircling the human girl.

Wisemon hummed. "Just as I thought. This is the answer I sought." Small tendrils of light floated towards a parchment, seemingly writing something on it. Whatever was being written on there was also said by Wisemon.

 _"I see you hail not from here._

 _But from a place far away, that is clear._

 _There will be peril among your path._

 _For there are many digimon with hearts filled with wrath._

 _Among them a warrior known as one of plant._

 _Who will fall powerless to evils command._

 _They must be led back to your side._

 _Otherwise you shall fall to evils might._

 _But I see a light at the end as well._

 _For though you will face hardships, and might go through hell._

 _I see a world brought forth with peace and harmony._

 _But upon your return, you will face a question with an answer that shall be for eternity._

 _Should you chose to stay with your many-a friend._

 _I foresee bonds of friendship that never shall end._

 _But should you return, back to where you came._

 _I cannot see future's plan for you, much to my shame."_

Sophia's mind spun. They will succeed. Go through hell? A-a warrior of plant? Was that the last warrior? And they fell to evils command? So, they are probably Duskmon's replacement. Great, just when she thought they only had to deal with 4 evil warriors.

The lights around her dimmed or disappeared into the parchment. Wisemon rolled up the piece of paper and handed it to the young girl.

"Should you wish to seek my words once more. I present you this, should there be something you look for."

The brunette hesitantly took the paper. "T-thank you." She said as she stuffed it in her jacket's pocket.

"There is no need for a thanks, little warrior of sound. I look forward to the day that we can once again play around. In a digital world that is once again in peace. It is thanks to you warriors that evils influence will cease."

This was apparently the end of the session, as the candles dimmed and the curtains opened. Sophia stepped out and was immediately greeted by the others.

"How did it go?" "Did you get your future told?" "What did he say?" "Did he mention anything about us?"

"C-come on. My future isn't that important..." Sophia muttered, looking away. "Besides, I was only chosen because he could feel I'm from another world..."

The others were about to protest, but luckily Bokomon butted in saying they had to hurry to Shamanmon, which Sophia mentally thanked him for. On the way there they met another few fortunetellers that were obviously faking it, causing a few complaints from JP.

"Have a little faith, please. I do know what I'm doing." Bokomon quieted their complaints as they approached a temple-like structure. "Shamanmon is the real thing."

They went inside through huge double-doors into a dark room. The only light there was currently coming from the door and possibly a few unseen windows. Completely in the back of the room was a black skinned digimon with its back to them.

Bokomon recognized him. "Shamanmon, I call upon your wisdom, your insight and basically...well, ask you for two cents of advice."

The digimon, Shamanmon, didn't move to look behind him. "Who calls upon Shamanmon?"

"Weary travelers." Bokomon answered. "In need of guidance from the universe."

"Oh, you'll get guidance, alright." Shamanmon finally turned to face the warriors, revealing a familiar looking face.

Everyone, except Koji and Sophia, were startled to see that face again. "Wait a minute! I remember you!" Takuya called.

"You're one of those nasty Goblimon from the Wind Factory." Zoe pointed out.

"And he's pretending to be another digimon." Koichi also joined in.

"Come on you guys! Let's get him!" They all pretty much reached for their D-Tectors when Tommy said that.

Bokomon, who'd realized his mistake the moment Takuya spoke, quickly tried to stop them. "No, no, no! Shamanmon is one of the good guys!"

"Maybe should have mentioned this before..." Sophia continued when she had everyone's attention. "Sometimes digimon look alike in everything except color. A different color always means it's a different digimon."

' _That's why he didn't feel evil...'_ Two voices rang through her head. The twins. Wait! Koji too?!

"You should be very careful." Shamanmon suddenly had everyone's attention as he began dancing strangely. "Ahead, you face much danger." What else is new? "You will come up against a foe you have faced before, but this foe has a friend." What? "And by beating them you will find a friend is your foe." What?! But this was the prediction about Koichi being Duskmon!

Takuya and Tommy eyed each other skeptically, while the others just seemed confused. "I don't buy it." Takuya said, to which Tommy agreed.

"Then listen to this!" Shamanmon's shout brought Takuya and Tommy back to facing the medium. "The greatest test will be faced by you two." He pointed his club at the aforementioned duo. "This test has the power to destroy you all if you're not careful." His serious face remained for just a moment before he went back to where he stood before with his goofy smile back in place.

"Hey, come back!" Tommy called.

"Yeah, we don't wanna get destroyed!" Takuya cried after.

Shamanmon went back to dancing for his next bit of fortunetelling. "Then remember who you are. And trust in each other, and your friendship."

Right when Shamanmon finished, an earthquake shook the temple. It shook the digimon off his feet and almost did the same for the others. They followed JP's idea to run for it outside, but almost fell in the process when the earthquake seemed to get even worse.

They were, however, just in time to see the ground burst open and reveal a golem-like digimon with a metal headpiece. On it was Grumblemon. Takuya took the lead running towards them with the whole group following.

"A foe or big friend?" Takuya wondered out loud, keeping Shamanmon's words in mind.

"Grumblemon is riding on him! What do you think?!" Sophia snapped.

"It's Golemon." Bokomon pointed out.

Golemon growled as his rider smirked down at the warrior kids. "Grumblemon backwith big angry surprise for little Spirit kids."

Koji glared at the purple armored warrior. "One of these days I'm gonna beat this jerk for good." he growled, remembering their last encounter.

Zoe huffed at his actions. "When are you gonna learn?" she asked him, hands on her hips and annoyed expression on her face. "How about working with the rest of us, hah?"

"We can deal 6 times as much damage by working together." Koichi tried in a more 'Koji-way' to get his brother to see the appeal in teamwork. It seemed to work. Koji's glare turned into a smirk after hearing Koichi's words.

Golemon didn't waste any more time. His master wanted these creatures gone, so he had to act. The children watched as the golem-digimon jumped up and launched at them. Neemon whimpered as Takuya, for whatever reason, wanted to wait a minute. Everyone else had their D-Tectors already in hand, ready to Spirit Evolve any second. Golemon struck the ground just in front of the children. Sending them all flying backwards.

That did it. Takuya now also took out his D-Tector. "Right. Minute's over!"

 **"EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION!"**

 **"AGUNIMON!"**

 **"BEETLEMON!"**

 **"KUMAMON!"**

 **"LOWEMON!"**

 **"SONAMON!"**

"Now for the Beast!" Koji exclaimed. **"EXECUTE! BEAST SPIRIT-"**

"Me no think so!" Grumblemon broke Koji's concentration. He threw some powdery substance at the area Koji was jumping to.

Where the powder landed, some kind of pentagram appeared. It froze Koji's movements even when he was jumping above it. When he landed, though, it completely immobilized him.

His D-Tector dropped to the ground as he struggled to move. "What's going on?" He asked, slightly trembling in his attempts to get up. "I can't move."

Grumblemon smirked down at the crouched boy. "Sorry, KendoGarurumon no play today." he snickered, clearly finding amusement in seeing one of the warrior children bowed down to him. "You no move till Grumblemon say so."

" **CRYSTAL FREEZE!"**

Kumamon had just about enough of the taunting. Unfortunately Golemon and Grumblemon jumped out of the way of his attack. The ice warrior, though, wasn't that lucky. He got hit full-body by punch thrown by Golemon and went flying again.

Beetlemon cried his name in worry. Without really looking if he was alright or not, he readied a payback attack. **"THUNDER** **FIST** **!"**

The attack hit the golem digimon head-on, literally, but it had no effect. He didn't even wince. Instead he just stared blankly at Beetlemon.

Then he opened his mouth. **"SULFUR PLUME!"** Volcanic gases spewed from his mouth, catching both Beetlemon and Kumamon.

The powerful blast send both of them flying into a bunch of pillars before coming to a halt on the rocky ground.

Grumblemon snickered on top a pillar. "Please not do tell me that best you can do." Golemon also laughed at their pathetic attempt to fight him.

"My turn!" Agunimon growled. **"PYRO PUNCH!"** **

This time it did seem to effect Golemon, but he was quick to recover and recoil with another **Sulfur Plume**. It pushed Agunimon back, and also took Beetlemon and Kumamon for another flying trip.

"Our turn Lowemon!" Sonamon exclaimed. "Let's combine."

"Right!" Lowemon readied himself, going to stand next to Sonamon.

"Koichi." Lowemon looked back to where Koji was still stuck. His brother shot him a grin. "Beat this guy extra hard for me, would ya?"

Lowemon nodded and got into position again. "Ready?" When Sonamon gave him the okay, he attacked. **"SHADOW METEOR!"**

 **"SONAR BOOM!"**

Sound waves surrounded the shadow blast, creating a more powerful attack. It hit Golemon in the stomach area and pushed him back a little, but other than that it didn't seem all that effective. The same fate befell them as they were also hit with a **Sulfur Plume** and joined their friends in blasting a few feet away.

"You can do it! Just work together!" Zoe called from the sidelines.

'We. Just. Did!' Sonamon thought grumpy, getting up from the ground.

Grumblemon had enough of all the struggles against him. "Enough. You finish!" he shouted. "You surrender Spirits now or be destroyed big time."

"Boy, would I like to shut that guy up." Beetlemon growled as everyone else stood up from the last attack.

"Yeah, me too!" Koji, in his frustration, managed to make one move. Punching the ground in anger. "There's gotta be something I can do!"

"Anybody got any suggestions?" Beetlemon asked the others.

Agunimon's mind was racing. What could they do? Beetlemon's attack had no effect, his own barely managed to push him back, Kumamon's was dodged so he had no idea how powerful it was.

Wait. Lowemon and Sonamon pushed Golemon back quite a bit. He looked at them while trying to stand his ground as another earthquake hit. Those two combined their attacks, just like back at Toy Island. Just like he and Koji had too!

' _Just w_ _ork together.'_ Zoe's words rang through his head. That's it!

"Yeah." he finally answered Beetlemon's question. "Work together."

Golemon charged again, using the same jump and strike technique as before. This time, they were ready! The warriors jumped as well. If they did this right, Golemon could be pushed to the ground and the landing would do some damage.

"Hit him hard!" Agunimon commanded in his leader tone.

"Right!" "I'll chill him out!" Beetlemon and Kumamon cried, while Lowemon and Sonamon gave their silent agreements as well.

 **"BLIZZARD BLASTER!"** Kumamon attacked Golemon's head, making him unable to see.

Beetlemon took his temporal blindness as an opportunity to get closer while charging his attack. Kumamon seized fire when Beetlemon got close enough. He didn't want to attack his own team after all.

Golemon only got a second to glance around before he was hit again. **"LIGHTNING BLITZ!"**

This time the rock digimon was hit in the stomach. They took full advantage of their sky-battle to push Golemon back as far as they could. He was getting too close to the ground. The warriors needed to get Golemon higher to make the impact with the ground harder!

Sonamon flew underneath the golem digimon. **"SONAR BOOM!"**

 **"SHADOW METEOR!"** Lowemon also helped getting the evil creature higher into the air, as well as further away.

Now it was Agunimon's turn. With the help of Beetlemon getting him higher up, he attacked. **"PYRO TORNADO!"**

The force of his kick send Golemon flying. He landed in front of Grumblemon, vanishing in a cloud of smoke. He wasn't defeated yet, but it was still a victory for the human warriors. They finally managed some good teamwork! Golemon won't be getting up soon with these injuries!

"No!" Grumblemon cried, refusing to accept defeat. He jumped from his spot on the pillar, Agunimon exclaiming to not let him escape. **"EXECUTE! SLIDE EVOLUTON!… GIGASMON!"**

A little overconfident from their last victory, Kumamon jumped into action again. He used his **Blizzard Blaster** on Gigasmon, but he retaliated with **Quagmire Twister**. This deflected all the snowballs. Instead of his usual tactic of hitting the good guys repeatedly, Gigasmon trapped Kumamon inside the funnel he created. This way he would be thrown around and hit repeatedly _without_ a chance of escaping or dodging.

Agunimon tried to save his surrogate little brother, but couldn't break through Gigasmon's attack. At one point he couldn't even reach them anymore when Gigasmon rose too far into the air.

When Gigasmon deemed enough damage to be done, he threw Kumamon out. The warriors watched in horror as Kumamon appeared...with a data stream around him. And even worse, the Spirit showed. As unfortunately expected Gigasmon ate the Spirit, turning Kumamon back into Tommy, who then proceeded to fall to the ground.

"Me have two now." Gigasmon said smugly. He didn't waste any time, though, immediately going into attack again. **"TECTONIC SLAM!"**

The warriors managed to dodge the attack just in time. All Gigasmon hit was ground, which may have been just as bad or even worse.

There was a sudden explosion. But it wasn't from Gigasmon. It came from behind them. A quick look revealed that Shamanmon's temple had been blown up and a huge dragon-like digimon was headed their way. The evil warrior noticed him coming as well, but too late. The mysterious digimon slammed his weapon into Gigasmon, sending him flying until he collided with a pillar.

He, as well as the warriors, stared at the big-nosed digimon in silence for a moment, until the mysterious digimon erupted in roars. Tommy immediately fled the scene, naturally.

"What is that thing?" Agunimon wondered, staring at the creature twice their size.

"Oh, you mean other than bad news?" Beetlemon replied sarcastically. Why couldn't things ever just go _their_ way?!

Bokomon called out to them from behind. "Now just hold on." he told them. "That thing may be on our side."

"Okay, but..." Agunimon looked the growling digimon over. "Somehow I don't think so."

"Whatever he is, he seems very upset." Neemon piped up. But right then, the digimon's growls turned into laughter. "Maybe not!"

Sonamon shook her head. "Neemon's right." she muttered as they watched the fight between it and Golemon. "Those cries just now, those were definitely cries of pain. I could hear it."

"Hear it? How?" Beetlemon asked her, finding it hard to believe that thing was upset or hurting.

Sonamon gave him a blank stare. "I'm the warrior of sound, what do you think?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Beetlemon cried. "Just because you're the warrior of an element doesn't mean you get special powers having to do with that!"

"Yes it does."

Eyes now turned to Lowemon, who remained silent as he focused on Golemon and the dragon-digimon. The winged digimon had taken flight with Golemon holing onto his legs. There was an obvious darkness coming from Golemon, but there was very little of that from the other digimon.

The group down below decided explanations could wait. There was a fight coming up and they weren't exactly standing in a safe spot. With no idea how powerful the newcomer was, it was best to stay clear. No one wanted another Spirit to be lost.

Sure enough, the blasters on the winged digimon's arms turned around sending a barrage of attacks at Golemon. After taking only a few seconds of the attack, Golemon lost his grip and fell, dissolving into data bits before even hitting the ground. So that's how powerful he was... All Gigasmon could do was stare in shock as the helmet was crushed by the dragon-digimon's foot. As he launched to attack, Gigasmon took the coward's way out and dug himself to safety. This deactivated the spell-circle around Koji, who immediately fled to safer grounds.

"He's really strong." Tommy cowered in fear as the dragon-digimon once again roared.

"Too strong." Koji said as he joined Tommy and Zoe on the sidelines.

Zoe took her eyes off the digimon to look at Koji. "If he comes after us, there's no way we can beat him."

"Right, time to go." Bokomon said while turning around to push everyone away from the dangerous scene.

Beetlemon and Lowemon were quick to follow their example. "Agunimon, come on." The warrior of thunder called out.

"Eh? Yeah..." he answered, turning around. "Sonamon?"

"R-right." The hesitant girl followed to after the call.

 _ **"** ** _H_ elp me!"**_

A voice rang out, startling Agunimon as well as Sonamon. The two warriors stopped in their tracks, turning back towards the dragon-mon. He still seemed to be roaring, but his roars were replaced by an actual voice.

 _ **"** ** _I'm_ possessed by the Beast Spirit!"**_

Wait a second... Agunimon knew that voice. "Shamanmon?"

 _ **"** ** _Pl_ ease, rescue me!"**_ Suddenly the poses he struck seemed different. They seemed to be less about showing off how powerful he was... They were more struggles, more...like he was in pain. Was it like that the whole time? _**"I was in the temple when the Beast Spirit was revealed. The instant I touched it I was possessed."**_

Agunimon shook his head. What was that just now? Why was he able to see what had happened? Wait. He took a closer look at the digimon. Shamanmon said this was a Beast Spirit... A-and he'd shown to have flame powers. Was this _his_ Beast Spirit?

His eyes narrowed as he stepped closer to the digimon. If this was his Beast Spirit, he would handle this. "Sonamon, please leave this to me. Go to the others." he told the female warrior in his 'there's no debating around this' voice.

Beetlemon heard him talking and turned to see what was going on. What he saw was Agunimon stepping loser to the rampaging digimon. "Agunimon? What are you doing?!" That thing destroyed Golemon in one hit and made Gigasmon flee in panic! Did he honestly think he could take that thing on by himself?!

"Don't worry, Shamanmon. I can help you." Apparently he does...

Unfortunately things weren't gonna go too easy. Flames suddenly began spewing out from the slits in his armor. No one was going to be able to touch the digimon now, except of course Agunimon.

'Shamanmon' swung his burning tail at Agunimon, who skillfully dodged. Everyone had stopped walking by now, watching the warriors of flame going at each other. Agunimon unleashed his pyro punch midair, which were unfortunately blocked by 'Shamanmon's' arm blasters.

'Shamanmon' quickly went from defense to attack as he turned his blasters around. A multitude of shots were fired at Agunimon, who got a chest full of it. The attack launched him farther into the air, after which he landed painfully on the rocky ground. It was a miracle he managed to avoid the pillars.

Oh, but 'Shamanmon' wasn't finished yet. While Agunimon struggled to get up after such a powerful attack, 'Shamanmon' jumped at him and pushed him back to the ground with his foot.

Agunimon tried to get up again, fighting through the pain of his new injuries, but was met with a blaster to his face as soon as he moved.

'I was trying to help you.' Went through Agunimon's head as their eyes met.

Ignoring the calls of his teammates, he kept his eyes focused on the digimon in front of him. Somehow, this seemed to help Shamanmon gain some control over his body. With a lot of struggle, he put away his blaster.

 _ **"** ** _St_ rike now!" **_he called, which startled Agunimon. ** _"Now!"_**

Not daring to waste anymore time, Agunimon did just that. He kicked the leg that wasn't pressing him down, which send 'Shamanmon' backwards. Agunimon ran the other way to get some distance, but didn't go too far. This was it. He had to put all his energy into this attack and free Shamanmon.

He slammed his fists together as flames spewed out of his gauntlets. **"PYRO PUNCH!"**

He threw one of the flame fists at his face. It was a direct hit, but didn't seem to face the digimon too much. Agunimon's fists tightened. This had to be it. This second punch has to knock him down! It has to be strong enough!

The second punch was thrown at his chest. Another direct hit, but this time it actually managed to knock him down. He didn't come back up, which was probably a good thing, Agunimon decided.

"Now to free Shamanmon." Agunimon took his D-Tector right as the weakened Beast warrior stood up. Like before with Tommy and Zoe, he turned into a black silhouette with his Fractal Code around him. "My D-Tector should release him." He hoped. **"FRACTAL CODE DIGITIZE!"**

Sure enough, it worked. As Takuya scanned the Beast warrior, Shamanmon was freed. The weakened digimon fell to the ground. But that wasn't the end...

The Spirit didn't get absorbed into the D-Tector like usually. Instead it went straight for Agunimon, as it felt the presence of its Human-Spirit counterpart. As it got closer, something happened. No one was sure what, but Agunimon suddenly started screaming in pain and disappeared into a cocoon of Fractal Code.

The Spirit was still untamed. In fact, it was even wilder than usual. Its first host failed to tame it. Now it took all the anger, pain and lust for power with it to its new host. Also having taken part in a fight made the primal instincts of the beast stronger. It longed for more fighting. It didn't matter if its host was hurting. He. Must. Fight.

The Fractal Code disappeared, revealing the dragon-digimon to the human kids. He was growling, but other than that nothing happened yet. M-maybe Takuya managed to control it? At least that was what the warriors were hoping.

Their hope was soon shattered. Just like when Shamanmon was possessed, flames spewed out of every crack and slit of his armor accompanied by howls of pain. The Beast Spirit has possessed Takuya.

The beast turned around upon hearing their voices. All he could see in his state was a digimon and a bunch of unidentifiable creatures. The digimon was staring right at him. Was it waiting for a fight? Well he could get one!

"Takuya." Beetlemon called, not liking the look he was given one bit. "It's me!"

But Takuya wasn't there at the moment. It was just BurningGreymon. He saw the other two digimon as well, also staring at him. So it was 3 against one, huh? How unfair...for them.

BurningGreymon charged at Beetlemon, who was caught off-guard, and pushed him backwards. The children unable of Spirit evolving fled the scene, but Koji stayed behind. He watched Beetlemon getting punched by BurningGreymon again. Knowing his power, that had to hurt.

"Takuya! That's JP!" he called out.

Now he'd gotten BurningGreymon's unwanted attention. The beast jumped at the blue clad boy, ready to tear him apart. Luckily Koji was a quick thinker and jumped out of the way, pulling out his D-Tector to Spirit evolve. If it was a fight he wanted, he was going to get it. Beast against beast.

While Koji Beast Spirit evolved, Lowemon kept the warrior of flame away from his brother. Beetlemon and Sonamon helped to keep the beast distracted from its original target, but it only worked for so long. They were eventually all knocked aside as he went for Koji again.

Luckily, his evolution had finished by now. Now as KendoGarurumon, he used the wheels on his heels ( _hehe~_ ) to get away and behind him in time. The Beast of flame turned around to face his beastly foe. So this is how they were going to play this, huh? Four against one. This had to be too easy!

Beetlemon tried in vain to stop the two beasts from fighting. None of them seemed to hear him. Koji wasn't even listening to his brother.

"Koji! Takuya! Stop this!" Beetlemon cried, once again in vain.

"Takuya's not there!" Sonamon snapped. "It's just the Beast Spirit, JP."

Beetlemon stared at the warrior of sound. "That doesn't mean we have to fight him!"

Sonamon just glared back. "If you have a better idea how to get him back I would love to hear it!" Beetlemon remained silent. "That's what I thought."

"Fighting him might be the only way to bring Takuya back." Lowemon said, hesitantly striking a fighting position. As much as he doesn't want to fight Takuya, if this was what he had to do... "Weaken him until he reverts back."

'Let's just hope that'll work.'

* * *

*This is something I actually used to do when I was frustrated, stressed or just bored.

**Why are there so many dub mistakes on Pyro Punch?! The animation clearly shows him _**punching**_. Pyro Tornado is _kicking_. (And yes I'm sure it's a dubbing mistake, because I watched the Japanese episode too which said Burning Salamander, which is the Japanese name for Pyro Punch)

-something- ( _charades_ ) Again, the -something- just ruins the chapter for me xD. What is proof read? What is asking for help? What is reading other fanfics? Dunno, I'll just add -something-! Shame, past me. Shame.

Change ( _chance_ ) I've got a lot of these too.

Weirdoes ( _weirdos_ ) Hah! What is plural?

"Like my Grandmamon's tea!" ("Like my Grandmamon's _teeth_!") Tea?! Really?!

"I didn't know what I'm doing." ("I _do_ know what I'm doing.") I don't know what happened.

To sense ( _two cents_ )

"Grumblemon back, with me and little surprise for little Spirit geeks." ("Grumblemon back _with big angry_ surprise for little Spirit _kids_.")

through wards ( _towards_ ) HOW MANY TIMES DID I MAKE THIS MISTAKE?!


	12. Fear and Loathing in Los Aerobes

Quick note, I'm still practicing writing fight scenes, so... Sorry if it's bad :/

Also... I've kinds lost my touch when it comes to writing this story (again). It'll come back, I'm sure, but for now...

I'll probably not be as consistent with my update schedule anymore, but who knows? Hopefully I'll get back into writing this soon.

Anyways, happy pride month and hope you enjoy.

 **Disclaimer: I do not nor will I ever own Digimon or any of its characters. I do own Sophia, Sonamon, the Beast Spirit that's gonna be revealed soon, any and all plot changes and any character that isn't shown on the wiki page.**

* * *

Beetlemon grunted as he was kicked back into a pillar. The fight had only just started, but all non-possessed warriors had bruises that would count for hours of fighting already. BurningGreymon was relentless. He struck KendoGarurumon with his tail when he noticed the white digimon coming from behind.

Sonamon and Lowemon tried to get him from the back now that he was distracted by Koji, but that didn't work out. BurningGreymon turned around to grab Beetlemon by the head, and saw them coming towards him. Like with the other two, Sonamon and Lowemon easily got knocked back by wing and arm.

BurningGreymon finished what he started and grabbed Beetlemon by the head. He ran at KendoGarurumon, who was still on the ground recovering from the pain of the impact, and threw Beetlemon at him. The two warriors collided hard.

When BurningGreymon went in for another kick, Lowemon **shadow meteor** 'ed him back, saving his brother and friend from another set of bruises. Sonamon flew circles around the beast to distract him when he tried going for the trio again. It worked as now he was trying to punch the everliving crap out of the flying warrior. When he kept missing, the flame warrior directed his anger to one of the few remaining pillars, shattering it in little pieces.

While the warriors regrouped, BurningGreymon suddenly began screaming. It was the same kind of screaming they heard when Shamanmon was possessed. Painful. He was hurting.

"There has to be a way to stop him." KendoGarurumon spoke. Even he couldn't stand seeing someone he'd kinda...maybe...sorta gotten close-ish to in pain like that.

Beetlemon looked at him. "But how?" He glanced at Sonamon and Lowemon. "Your 'fighting until he's weakened' tactic obviously isn't working."

Sonamon just shot another glare at the blue armored digimon. "I'd still love to hear you come up with a better idea."

Koji already wasn't listening to this childish banter anymore. Instead he'd started walking closer to the beast digimon to challenge him. "Alright! If it's a fight you want, fight me!"

That brought Beetlemon back from his glare contest with the only female digimon of the group. BurningGreymon was now staring directly at him.

Nope! He was not gonna be this guy's snack because of something Koji said! "Don't look at me!" He said as he flew out of the way.

KendoGarurumon landed on the spot where Beetlemon had just been standing. He took his fighting stance. BurningGreymon stared him down, but not for long. He was soon charging at the wolf digimon full running-speed.

KendoGarurumon remained where he stood though. He decided to try a long range attack instead of continuously charging and failing to even scratch the other warrior.

" **LUPINE LASER!"** A white beam shot from his mouth aimed at BurningGreymon's feet.

Unfortunately the beast of flame had faster reflexes then expected, and he simply jumped before it hit him. He landed on KendoGarurumon's head, pinning him down so he could strike him with his claws.

Non of the other three warriors liked this idea. Sonamon and Beetlemon flew at him to knock him over. Luckily the beast was caught off-guard so they easily got him off of Koji.

The four of them quickly fled into the woods. Bad idea in retrospect, but whatever.

" **PYRO BARRAGE!"** They heard BurningGreymon yell, which surprised them. Up until now the only things that came out of his mouth were growls and screams of pain. Wait- Was that an attack?!

Sure enough a barrage of little fireballs came through the woods. They ended up hitting trees mostly and blasting them to little bits. But that was exactly the problem... Soon after beginning the attack, part of the forest was nothing more then a sea of flames.

"We have to do something before he levels the whole forest." Beetlemon called out over the roars of the flames. "Or the whole world!"

KendoGarurumon dropped the wheels to the ground. "I'll stop him."

He left the other three as soon as he said that. The blades on his back spread out to cut any trees that he passed. It concerned JP that he was doing this. Was he _trying_ to help destroy the forest?!

Lowemon noticed what he did, however. "Of course, he's cutting down the trees to prevent the flames from spreading further!"

"So we just have to cut down the trees that are on fire?" Sonamon asked him as Lowemon already started helping his brother.

"Not all of them. That would take too long." he told the girl. "Just the ones on the edge of the flames. And push them towards the middle."

Still a little unsure of what that meant, Sonamon went to help cutting the trees.

All four warriors worked together to cut down the trees and prevent more trees from being set aflame. Unfortunately, after the fire had finally died down, there was absolutely nothing to save from that piece of forest. The trees were completely scorched black and ashes were literally everywhere.

"Oh man." Beetlemon groaned as he saw the destruction of the fire. "If he keeps this up, they're gonna have to rename it the 'Burned-To-A-Crisp' Kingdom."

"If he keeps this up there won't be a kingdom to name." Sonamon threw in her own bit.

Sounds of stomping came from behind, catching KendoGarurumon's attention. It was hard to see through the smoke, but that problem was soon solved. BurningGreymon appeared from the smoke, headed straight for Beetlemon and Lowemon. Had they really forgotten about the giant, raging digimon that started this mess?!

'Oh no, you don't!' KendoGarurumon lunged at the other beast, only to receive a kick to the face.

Lowemon, shield and lance in hand, tried the same once he noticed the attack on his brother. Unfortunately he was quickly pushed aside by BurningGreymon's tail. Sonamon received a headbutt backwards and a claw to the back to make her join her friends.

Beetlemon, though, got the worst of it. After a knee to the stomach, BurningGreymon thought it'd be nice to stomp on him repeatedly. After about 5 stomps he stopped, but he raised his claw instead.

"Takuya don't! It's me!" Beetlemon cried out in fear.

In sudden hesitation, BurningGreymon lowered his claw. _'Wait, what am I doing?'_ Came his voice, only audible to the warrior of sound.

His eyes began to glow blue, which Beetlemon noticed.

' _Gotta stay calm. Stay in control.'_

He stepped off Beetlemon, who quickly rolled away from his reach, just in case. He joined the other warriors, who were watching full of tension the former motionless BurningGreymon looked around.

' _These guys are my friends. I have to keep reminding myself of that.'_ He saw KendoGarurumon and Beetlemon through BurningGremon's eyes. A bit behind them were Lowemon and Sonamon. _'Wait a second. If they are my friends, why are they attacking me?'_ His vision shifted, making the digimon seem similar, but different. He remembered how every difference in a digimon meant they were a different species. _'Maybe they are the enemy.'_

"No! Takuya, we _are_ your friends!" Sonamon shouted, for once not caring that she made no sense to anyone but Koichi. "Keep reminding yourself! You just said it yourself!"

"What are you talking about?" Beetlemon snapped. "Now you see him as Takuya? You kept saying how he wasn't there before and _now_ you change your mind?!"

"Priorities, JP!" Sonamon shouted in fear when BurningGreymon, eyes now glowing red, came charging at them.

The four of them scattered. Thankfully BurningGreymon hit no one, not even when he tried to hit Koji with his tail again.

Then came that horrid growl. It stopped everyone in their tracks. Sure he'd been growling since Spirit evolving... but not like this! The growls that used to sound human enough to know Takuya was there were gone, replaced by the most beastly roar any of them ever heard. Takuya seemed to be gone again.

BurningGreymon turned his head, apparently being focused on something else. He spread his wings and lifted off in a different direction.

"Where is he going?" Beetlemon asked.

The two flying warriors flew up high to get a better view. The beast flew towards a bare hill. No trees, only rocks. At least the chances of starting a everything-destroying sea of fire were smaller there.

Beetlemon's eyes narrowed. What were those things going up the hill? His eyes suddenly widened with a gasp. "He's going after Zoe!" he shouted as he left.

The warriors down below heard his scream and were quick to follow the flying duo to the hill. Of course the flying warriors arrived first, and just in time too. BurningGreymon was having a stare down with the human duo and was twitching ever so slightly, meaning he was ready to strike.

Beetlemon dove down, hoping his plan would work. "Cut it out!" he called. It had the response he'd hoped for as he slammed his horn in the beast's face when he looked up.

"Back to the burning forest!" Beetlemon and Sonamon heard Bokomon say as well as footsteps getting further away from them.

KendoGarurumon and Lowemon had reached the top of the mountain by now and were making their way to where the thunder and sound warriors were. Not that Beetlemon could see it. After his collision with BurningGreymon the beast was less than pleased about it. He'd grabbed the warrior of thunder by the face as soon as he could.

Sonamon tried to help him by attacking his back with her **sound boom** in shield form, but got the smack down with his tail. KendoGarurumon finally arrived at the scene, but before he could do anything he got Beetlemon thrown at him. When Lowemon tried to help by distracting the possessed warrior so his friends could recover from the impact, he got slammed into a rock, back-first h and went motionless. He was still conscious, and the damage wasn't serious enough to release his Spirit, luckily, but he did need a moment to recover.

Sonamon and Beetlemon teamed up to knock BurningGreymon down. The warrior of sound once again used her **sound boom** shield form and Beetlemon used **lightning blitz** to launch her at his torso. Unfortunately they underestimated BurningGreymon's strength. The combined attack barely pushed him back, but after he headbutted Sonamon to the ground and grabbed Beetlemon by the face again.

When he dragged Beetlemon through the rock-hard ground, the warriors suddenly heard someone call out.

"Takuya, no!" Tommy.

There was no time to pay attention to him. They had to focus on the beast in front of them. The beast who was now dragging the warrior of light over the ground. When Tommy stopped in front of BurningGreymon, he'd just finished picking up and slamming KendoGarurumon onto the ground.

"Takuya..." Tommy couldn't believe this was his big brother figure. Koji could be really hurt from that attack. His eyes went from KendoGarurumon back to the warrior of flame, seeing that his call had caught his attention. "Please, you gotta stop this!"

The four warriors finally noticed Tommy right in front of BurningGreymon and moved. Each warrior surrounded Tommy, but made sure to keep their distance just in case. He seemed very focused on Tommy now, not seeing the digimon, and they wanted to keep it like that. Who knows what BurningGreymon would do to the boy if he noticed the warriors.

Tommy took no notice of this, however. "Fight it, Takuya! I know you don't wanna hurt any of us." He spread his arms and took the tiniest of steps closer. The beast immediately backed off, but this didn't stop Tommy. "This isn't really you. You're just out of control and afraid."

Tommy took another step forward, which caused BurningGreymon to take another one backwards. He growled that beastly growl at Tommy, but he wasn't fazed by it. This is where the warriors decided to step in.

"Takuya, listen to him!" Koji called.

JP flew into BurningGreymon's field of vision. "Come on, Taky. It's us."

"Takuya, try to remember." Koichi joined in, walking up under Beetlemon. "We're your friends."

Sonamon also got a little closer. "Please, Takuya. Remember."

BurningGreymon roared again, but made no move to attack. So far so good.

"Don't you get it?" Tommy asked the bast digimon. "We're your friends. We're here to help you." He chanced another step forward.

Bad choice. What he didn't know, and couldn't have known, was that the Beast Spirit's vision twisted again, making Tommy appear more like a monster. A monster that had it out for him. That step closer meant he was going to attack! BurningGreymon wouldn't let that happen!

The beast's eyes began glowing red again. That was the first red flag the warriors should have picked up on. The second was when he ran towards Tommy with one arm raised. But by that time, they were too late. BurningGreymon grabbed the boy, holding him up high as he squeezed him tight.

Sonamon dove for Tommy, only to get punched into a rock by BurningGreymon, de-Spirit evolving upon impact. Lowemon took to standing watch over her, as she, unlike Zoe and the rookie digimon, was still within reach of BurningGreymon.

"Takuya, wait a minute!" To everyone's surprise, he actually stopped squeezing Tommy. "Don't you remember what happened?" He recalled what happened when he was possessed by Bakumon. He himself remembered very little of what happened exactly, but bits and pieces came back to him over time. "I learned that true courage isn't paying bullies back, it's just standing up to them." It didn't seem to have any effect, but Tommy didn't give up yet. "You helped me see that fighting back in fear is just as bad as being a bully. You can't let fear control you, you have to fight it." There was still no change. Tommy was running out o things to say. If this didn't work, he would be losing his brother figure to the Beast Spirit. He couldn't let that happen. These thoughts made Tommy tear up. "I know you won't hurt me if you remember we're friends..."

A stray tear fell out of Tommy's eye, falling onto BurningGreymon's. At first nothing seemed to happen, but that was only to the warriors that weren't Takuya.

BurningGreymon's vision shifted one more time, turning the monster in his hand back into the young boy he saw as a brother. _'Wait... Tommy?'_

The beast blinked once, turning the red glow in his eyes into a blue glow. The other warriors looked at each other. Was this a good sign? They went tense when he suddenly brought Tommy closer.

' _What was I going to do? What **did** I do?'_

Tommy watched in relief as the glow dimmed, revealing kinder looking, blue eyes. Takuya was back, he knew it.

Tommy was gently placed on the ground, which relieved everyone around. Did this mean Takuya was back? Their breaths were held when he suddenly turned around and stormed off. What was going on now? Wasn't he back to normal?

When BurningGreymon began repeatedly beating his head on a boulder, they knew something was up. The warriors went back into defensive positions, pushing the humans behind them.

But BurningGreymon made no move to attack. Instead, he directed all his anger and frustration on the boulders, smashing it to pieces even more once it broke under his head. With one final beastly howl he finally turned back to Takuya. And while it should have been a happy moment for all, the sudden crying of their teammate made it that it wasn't so...

Everyone de-Spirit evolved, not sure what else to do.. Should they console him? What was he even crying about? I mean, they had a vague idea, but they weren't sure. Everyone looked at each other, wondering what to do and seeing if anyone had any idea.

It was decided. First of, they might want to move. Staying at the location Takuya basically destroyed was bound to be no good for him. Through some miracle they managed to calm Takuya enough so he could walk. Avoiding the burnt down forest, the group didn't stop walking until they reached a lake side. The burned forest was now far out of sight, so this was a good place to take a break.

Takuya apparently had already decided this was a good place to rest as, when the other kids turned to their friend, they found him sitting by the lake. Maybe he just needs a moment alone... Besides, a break wouldn't hurt after such a double fight.

Eventually though, Tommy grew worried. "Do you think he's okay?" he asked the older kids.

"He's self-loathing..." Sophia answered, hearing his thoughts. "So, I'd say no."

JP gave her a look. "How do you know?" he asked in a harsh tone. He was so done with the girl. "And don't even try to change the subject. We're not in a fight, so there's no reason not to tell!"

"There is a reason not to tell." Sophia replied with a glare. "And that's because I don't have to!"

Koichi luckily came in between before the situation got out of hand. "Guys, now is not the time." He looked over at Takuya. The other 5 followed his gaze. They needed to focus on Takuya. One issue at a time. "We'll tell you later."

" _We?!_ " JP screeched, only to be shushed by Zoe.

Tommy's eyes never left Takuya. He got up off the ground and walked a bit closer. He had to hear from Takuya himself. "Uhm... Takuya?" he started a bit hesitant. "Are you okay?"

That finally seemed to snap Takuya out of whatever trance he was in. "I should be asking you that." He turned around to face Tommy, and the rest of the gang while he was at it. "Thanks, Tommy."

Tommy blushed. "Ah, it was nothing." he said. "But you're welcome."

"It wasn't nothing." Takuya snapped. "It was one of the bravest things I've ever seen."

"Well, I owed you one." Tommy told him, referring to when Bakumon had him under his spell. "Now we're even."

"Ah, the trials of friendship." Bokomon interrupted the nice moment. "Take note you four for when you get your Beast Spirits."

Oh.

Right...

"Ehm... Why don't you go first?" JP turned to Zoe. No way he wanted to be the next to be out of control.

Unfortunately for him, Zoe had similar thoughts. "Oh no, you. I insist."

Sophia and Koichi just stared at each other, silently asking 'You wanna go first?'.

"Yes, well of course you still have to get _back_ those Spirits that you lost to Grumblemon." Bokomon reminded them.

Takuya gritted his teeth. "Thanks for the reminder." he grumbled.

Sophia elbowed the gnome-digimon. "Don't be a downer." she hissed. "Not now at least."

Bokomon jumped up from his spot under the tree, shooting a glare at the girl. "I'm not being a 'downer', I'm just being realistic!"

"Be realistic later then."

"How are we gonna find Grumblemon anyway?" Koji asked, effectively shutting the two up.

'You haven't noticed?' Sophia wondered. 'We don't. He finds us.'

There was silence for a few moments. No one had any idea how to find the evil warrior. It was always the other way around.

"Geez. It seems harder to avoid him than to find him." Takuya groaned in annoyance. "I think we should just keep going. I bet we'll run into him sooner or later."

"Sounds good to me." Zoe agreed.

JP stared at her like she'd just gone nuts. "I know you want your Spirit back, but how can 'running into Grumblemon' sound good?!" He put a hand to his forehead in disbelieve of what he was hearing. "That's the dumbest thing I ever heard."

Zoe shot an angry look at JP as she made threatening gestures. "You better hope you get your Beast Spirit first, pal. 'cause I'm coming after you when I get mine."

JP swallowed, quickly walking away from the girl. "Now I know what Bokomon meant by the trials of friendship."

With that, they began their trip through the forest. The only sound was Bokomon reading something to the kids from the book. Something about the roots making the trail treacherous and how ridiculous that was...before tripping over a root and proving the book right.

JP, who'd been walking ahead a little, made a sudden stop. He looked down the hill he was standing on, seeing odd roots. There were five thick roots with numerous thinner ones connecting them. The thick roots ended in four crosses and one circle.

The plump boy waved the others over. "Hey, check it out." He pointed down at the patterned roots. "What's up with these roots?"

The others came running, curious to what JP was talking about. They stared at the odd pattern for a while. This seemed to be their only way down and through the forest, but what did this mean?

"Ooh, do those symbols stand for hugs and kisses?" JP asked, looking lovingly at Zoe.

Zoe just gave him a blank stare. "Yeah, like you'd know." she said, causing a small cry from the boy.

"This looks like a game I used to play..." Sophia muttered.

"How does it work? Is it like a maze?" Neemon asked, being the only one who heard her muttering.

"Well, not really." Bokomon answered his question. "All the roots connect."

"We'll make it a maze!" Neemon piped up. "Everyone pick your own vine and let's go!"

'That doesn't make it a maz- Oh, whatever...'

Everyone picked a vine. Koji and Bokomon chose the fourth, Zoe changed her mind and went to join Neemon on the second root instead of the fourth, JP picked the first vine to be next to Zoe, Takuya and Tommy went for the third root. After a good look, which became harder the farther down they got, Koichi joined JP on the first root and Sophia joined Tommy and Takuya.

"Ready? Set. Go!"

It was great fun going down the hill, following all the vines. Neemon seemed to be the only one who didn't understand that you were supposed to follow every root you came across, as he skipped a few. How did they know? Well, because he started on the second vine with Zoe and ended 2 crosses away from her.

In the end, Tommy, Takuya and Sophia won, which they proudly let the others know. The rest of the gang looked down at their cross in slight annoyance.

"Yeah? So what's the big deal?"

Right after JP asked that, the ground beneath their feet gave away. A thick pool of mud rose where they stood. It rose to their chest, making them unable to move anything but their arms.

"Stop struggling!" Takuya called out over the rumbling of the ground. "You're only gonna make things worse."

"Easy for you to say!" JP snapped back.

Takuya thought quickly and snapped a sturdy vine from a tree. He threw it over the mud pool, far enough that even JP could reach it, handed one part to Tommy and Sophia and pulled. It was no use, though. They were stuck like glue.

Things got even worse when an all too familiar face appeared in a cloud of smoke. Grumblemon. "Look who here." He looked at them with a grin. He was thoroughly enjoying the scenario he was seeing.

"It's Grumblemon! No!" Takuya cried.

"Grumblemon, yes! And you just where I want you." He laughed. "Looks like you three won race. Too bad winners now big losers!" he exclaimed. "It Spirit-taking time!"

"Actually I think it's getting-stuck-in-the-mud time." Neemon cleverly, yet not so cleverly pointed out.

"You not quiet, you learn hard way it really hammer-smashing time! Got it?!" Grumblemon sounded so done with Neemon as he screeched this at him. "And now take care you."

Takuya was scared. He knew he couldn't take on Grumblemon as Agunimon, let alone beat Gigasmon. Tommy couldn't help him without his Spirit, and Sophia, he was sure, also didn't stand a chance with only her Human Spirit. If six Human Spirits couldn't beat him, only two probably couldn't even scratch him!

"Why can't we just be friends?" Takuya asked in this scared state.

"Quiet now!" Grumblemon balled his fist. "No one give me much trouble as you. You know you lose. Why not you play nice?"

Now Takuya got mad. Play nice? And what? Let him destroy the digital world?! No way! "So what?! We should just hand over our Spirits?!" He clenched the D-Tector in his pocket, feeling the bond between him and Agunimon. "Forget it! That's never gonna happen. Especially now that I have my Beast Spirit."

"And I may not have my Beast Spirit yet, but I'm not letting you take Sonamon from me!" Sophia exclaimed.

Takuya moved Tommy farther behind him when Grumblemon took a few steps closer. "Now, why me not afraid of Beast Spirit and girly-girl?"

Sophia's eye twitched upon hearing 'girly-girl'. "He's gonna die..." she growled.

The goggleheaded leader either didn't hear her, or chose to ignore her, focusing instead of the warrior of earth in front of him. "Well, you should be, 'cause it's very powerful."

Grumblemon just snickered. "Only powerful if you can control, and I betting you not learn yet. Or why you look so afraid?"

It was at moments like this Takuya cursed his big mouth. Of course he hadn't learned to control BurningGreymon yet. He didn't even want to try! He was just going to end up hurting someone, he knew it.

In his frightful thinking, Takuya didn't notice the wince he let out, or the step back that he took. This told Grumblemon all he needed to know. With a smirk still plastered of his face, the evil warrior pulled his hammer from out of the ground, ready to smash the human twerps with it.

Takuya luckily snapped out of his thoughts as soon as he noticed the hammer and dove out of the way, towards the trees, taking Tommy with him, while Sophia dove the other way, towards the mudpool.

Now that the evil warrior had multiple targets to focus on, Takuya took this chance to help Tommy to safety. Since this was the warrior of earth they were talking about, maybe Tommy was better off higher up... Like in one of the trees!

He pushed Tommy up the tree, and once the boy was climbing himself, the human of flame turned to face Grumblemon, D-Tector ready in hand. The girl opposite of him did the same as she stood up.

" **EXECUTE! SLIDE EVOLUTION! …GIGASMON!"**

So he was going Gigasmon again... Then he will go- The fight from before flashed in front of his eyes. ...A-Agunimon...

" **EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION! …AGUNIMON!"**

" **EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION! …SONAMON!"**

Agunimon, as soon as the data-cocoon disappeared, readied the biggest **pyro punch** he could.

Bokomon's words, however, immediately stopped him from doing so. "Hasn't the forest had enough fire today?"

"Right." Fire that _he_ caused.

Instead of one of his attacks, which would all cause another forest fire, he jumped at the big-nosed gnome warrior. That proved to be useless. Gigasmon simply grabbed him, chopped him on the shoulder and threw him towards the other free warrior. She barely managed to dodge when Agunimon grabbed at the ground to twist himself around mid-air.

" **SONAR BOOM!"** **"QUAGMIRE TWISTER!"**

Gigasmon easily shook off the **sonar boom** while performing his own attack. Agunimon and Sonamon, however, weren't able to shake off Gigasmon's attack so easily. They both got knocked backwards into a bunch of trees*.

"Agunimon! Sonamon!" Tommy cried out.

Wrong thing to do. While still holding onto the tree trunk, Tommy was suddenly grabbed by a hand the size of his own body. His call had attracted Gigasmon's attention.

Hearing Tommy's cry, the older sibling figures looked up to find their youngest member in the clutches of Gigasmon.

"Gigasmon, put him down!" "Only cowards fight like that!" They called out at the same time.

"If you want him, you have come take him." Gigasmon called out from the tree, before climbing even higher.

"But-"

Agunimon looked back at the guys stuck in the mud. He couldn't just leave them here, could he? What if Gigasmon came back? Or if they sank even further into the mud? He could add that to the list of mistakes he's made, right under the forest fire.

Sonamon saw his reluctance and, despite her anger at Gigasmon, made a decision. "You go after Gigasmon. I'll stay here and try to free them." she gestured to the team behind her.

"Are you sure?" Agunimon asked her.

Sonamon put up a happy face. "Of course. I can handle Gigasmon if he gets here. Besides, I know you won't be far behind." She struck a battle pose, even fluttering a little for emphasis. "I'll have them free as fast as I can."

Agunimon, though still hesitant, nodded. "Alright. I'm counting on you."

"Right!" As soon as Agunimon disappeared into the trees, she dropped the facade and fluttered back to the ground. "Right..." She quickly shook her head. 'No time for that! Takuya said he's counting on you, so prove you can do what you just said you would do!'

She quickly flew to where the vine was laying. The others also took hold of the vine again. Once everyone had a good hold on it, Sonamon pulled. She pulled as hard as she could in all different ways. Flying backwards low to the ground, flying backwards higher off the ground, planting her feet on the ground and pulling. Nothing seemed to work. They weren't budging.

"Sophia, just stop." Koji called out. "We'll be fine, just help save Tommy."

Sonamon stubbornly shook her head. "You guys are just as important as Tommy." 'Besides. This is Agunimon's fight. This is important to him.'

"But Tommy is in bigger trouble than we are." Koichi told her.

She still shook her head. "I don't care. If we wanna stand a chance against Gigasmon we need everyon- GHAA-!"

The vine snapped, unbalancing Sonamon who ungracefully fell on her back. She sat up, glaring at the piece of vine in her hand. 'Keep it in. Keep it in. Don't bother them with your problems girl. Just keep. It. IN!'

"This is gonna hurt!" Agunimon's scream cut through the silence. Before the others could search for where it came from, a sound of impact and smoke cloud appeared on their left. "I was right..." Agunimon's groan came from it.

Apparently the fight hadn't gone too well. The fall had weakened Agunimon enough to turn him back into Takuya, who was still groaning in pain.

"Takuya!" Zoe, Bokomon and Neemon called out in worry.

"Are you okay?" JP asked, equally worried.

With a few more groans, Takuya managed to sit up. "Y-yeah, but Tommy's still in trouble." he told the gang. "And I don't know how to save him."

"Looks like a Human Spirit just can't compete with a Beast Spirit!" As if that wasn't obvious enough, but Koji resisted making a snarky remark. "You have to turn into BurningGreymon."

Takuya stood up, immediately stepping back from the group just a little. "But I can't. What if I lose control again?"

They saw him. They saw him beat up his friends. They saw him burn down the forest. Why would they trust him to turn into that again?

Zoe's eyes softened. He was afraid... The boy they, or at least _she_ , thought was fearless was scared. "Don't be afraid. Just...remember what Tommy said."

Takuya perked up. What Tommy said...? He thought back to when he'd held Tommy. When he'd captured Tommy in his claws as BurningGreymon.

" _I learned that true courage isn't paying bullies back, it's just standing up to them."_

" _You helped me see that fighting back in fear is just as bad as being a bully. You can't let fear control you, you have to fight it."_

" _I know you won't hurt me if you remember we're friends."_

"Remember who your friends are and you'll be fine." Zoe encouraged him, with the softest smile she could muster while still stuck in that disgusting mud.

"What was it that Shamanmon said? Remember who you are? Trust in each other and your friendship?" Sonamon supplied.

"We trust that you won't lose control again, Takuya." Koichi also joined in. "Can you trust us?"

"What?" Gigasmon's voice interrupted the nice moment between friends. "Not want to help friend?"

Tommy was lowered from the trees, bound on vines and still being held onto by the warrior. Takuya cried out his name in worry.

Gigasmon snickered at the humans down below him. "Playtime over. Now give me Spirit! You hurry, maybe you save him." he taunted the warrior.

Tommy nearly gasped when he saw Takuya actually looking at his D-Tector like he was gonna give in. "No! Don't do it, Takuya! Don't trade your Spirit for me!" 'You have no idea how bad it feels without your Spirit... I don't want you to know how that feels!' "It's okay, I'm not afraid!"

Takuya cried out to the boy again when he was suddenly lifted up again by Gigasmon. Apparently negotiations were over with. "Some friend you be." he taunted again. "Won't even give up Beast Spirit to save friend."

"I'm not afraid of you." That was the second time Tommy said that. Why did he keep saying that? Did he know something?

"You should be." Gigasmon cut the ties around Tommy, but kept a firm grip on his body as he swung from vine to vine.

Takuya gritted his teeth. There Tommy was, showing no fear in the hands of Gigasmon and here _he_ was being afraid of his own Beast Spirit! "That's it!" He clenched his fists, including D-Tector which he was still holding. "If Tommy can show courage in the face of that creep, then so can I!"

" **EXECUTE! BEAST SPIRIT EVOLUTION! …BURNINGGREYMON!"**

The team's faces lit up when they saw the familiar blue eyes on BurningGreymon. Takuya had control! The Beast warrior didn't waste a second. He immediately ran over to where Gigasmon took Tommy, out of sight for everyone in the mud and close to it.

Sonamon, while happy for Takuya, balled her fists. 'Get up already! Get your friends out of that mud! Prove you're a goddamned warrior already!'

She got up and grabbed what was left of the vine. Surprisingly, it was still reachable on land. After making sure everyone had grabbed a hold of it, she pulled again. It still wasn't budging even an inch.

'Why can't I do this? It's just mud! I've fought digimon before, I should be able to do this!' Her grip slacked. 'But, I never really was any help in a fight, was I? The only times I was any help was when I combined my attacks...' She tightened her grip again, pulling harder. 'That doesn't matter! I'm still a Legendary Warrior! I should be able to pull someone out of the mud!' She threw the vine to the ground in frustration. 'WHY AM I SO WEAK?!'

"Sophia?" Voices brought the girl back from her thoughts. The team, minus Takuya but now including Tommy, was eying her in concern. "Are you okay?" It was Tommy who asked her, and who called her name earlier.

Sonamon let out a sigh. "Fine. Fine." she said. "Just getting frustrated that this isn't working. I haven't felt like you were moving even a millimeter. And I've been pulling the hardest I can!" No one dared tell her that they really weren't moving.

Tommy looked at the vine the warrior of sound had just thrown to the ground. "Maybe I can help?" he suggested, picking up the vine.

He handed a part to Sonamon. While frustrated, she would never take it out on someone who had nothing to do with it, so she took the stupid greenery. Together they pulled again. In the distance, they could hear the sounds of fighting, but they were getting farther away.

There was just a tiny bit of movement in the mud now. Not enough to get free any time soon, but it was something.

Sonamon still wasn't satisfied though. 'This is getting us nowhere. We need more strength.' She gritted her teeth. 'I bet if it was Lobomon or Beetlemon here with Tommy, they would've gotten us out in a second!' her knuckles turned white from her grip on the vine. 'Why is it that there are two Spirit-less warriors here and _I'm_ the weak link?! Why can't I just be strong?!'

The mud suddenly burst open, startling everyone as a beam of light appeared out of it. It dimmed to reveal a Spirit, causing Sonamon to de-Spirit evolve immediately. No one wanted what happened to Takuya to happen again, and being in his Human Spirit form already could have been a possible trigger.

The Spirit floated over to Sophia, stopping just in front of her as the girl pulled out her D-Tector. Unlike what happened the first time, the Beast Spirit got absorbed into the D-Tector like any other Spirit.

"Well? Aren't you gonna Spirit Evolve?" Koji asked.

Sophia didn't answer, opting to look at her D-Tector instead. Koichi knew that look in her eyes from way back in the Wind Factory. "Sophia." he called. "You don't have to be afraid."

'Great advice for an anxious mess like me...'

"Anxious mess?" Oh crap, did she say that out loud?!

Zoe decided to take the Takuya route on her. "You don't have to be afraid of your Beast Spirit. Just remember who your friends are."

'Remember who my friends are. Remember who my friends are.' she mentally chanted to herself as she got ready to Spirit evolve. 'My friends are Zoe, Koichi, Takuya, Tommy, Koji and...JP I guess. My friends are the ones I've been trying to free from the mud. My friends are the reason I want to be stronger.' She opened her eyes, not remembering when she'd closed them. 'Let's do this.'

" **EXECUTE! BEAST SPIRIT EVOLUTION! …VIBRAMON!"**

In place of Sophia now stood the Beast warrior of sound; Vibramon. Vibramon had short blue fur covering her head, shoulders and arms, as well as her bat-like, speaker ears. Short dark teal hair covered the beasts eyes completely. Her legs and stomach were covered in short white fur with a white, blue-striped tail protruding from her rear. It also had a built-in microphone. She had a violet chest plate with 2 speakers, and another set of speakers strapped to her knees.

Overall she seemed pretty human, except for the ears, tail, inward pointed knees, three toed feet and hands, both having razor sharp claws. Oh and of course the red bat wings sprouting from her back. She also wore the symbol of her element on two purple wristbands.

'My friends are Zoe, Koichi, Takuya, Tommy, Koji and JP... My friends are... My friends...are not in danger...?'

Vibramon opened her eyes, somehow able to see perfectly despite the hair covering her eyes. Probably the same thing as Kazemon. She looked at her claws, her body and just generally checked herself out.

"Sophia?" Zoe's slightly shaky voice caught the warrior's attention back to her friends. "Are you... still you?"

Vibramon nodded, giving her a fanged smile. "I- I'm me." she said. "I'm me! I'm in control!" she fluttered off the ground in delight. "How-?"

"Does that really matter right now?" Koji snapped, slowly getting tired of being stuck in the mud, being useless. "Can you just get us out of here?"

"Right!" They all once again grabbed the vine. Sophia swallowed the lump in her throat. 'Please be stronger...'

And pull! Sure enough, the group moved. They finally moved through the mud! It still took a lot of effort, but with every kid that came out of the mud and helped pull, it became easier until everyone was out.

JP was the last one out of the mud. "Now what?" he asked, brushing off his shirt a little.

"We have to help Takuya, of course." Tommy said, looking around the trees for any sign of the Beast Spirit.

Everyone agreed of course, but where did he go? They had a vague idea based on where he chased Gigasmon earlier, but the evil warrior could've taken any turn during the chase. Vibramon quickly took to the sky, looking around from a higher point.

Immediately her ears picked up the sound of fighting on her right. It wasn't too far from where she flew. The sounds seemed to come from the edge of the forest. In fact, she was 100% sure they came from there. There was still some dust and smoke in the air. That's where they needed to be.

Apparently the others heard the explosion as well. With a quick 'follow me' gesture the girl led the gang through the forest. During the trip they would occasionally see or hear bits of the fight. Mostly on BurningGreymon's part, so that was a good sign. Right?

The group burst out of the bushes just in time to see Gigasmon getting wrecked by BurningGreymon's **wildfire tsunami** after which he turned into a black silhouette.

As the gang came closer to their fiery teammate, all the while calling their cheers and congratulations, they noticed the four Spirits in front of Gigasmon's Fractal Code. Grumblemon, Kazemon, Kumamon and Gigasmon in that order.

Zoe held her hands to her chest when she saw her Spirit. If the hole surrounding Gigasmon hadn't been too wide, she would've jumped over it to get Kazemon. For now though, she would have to trust Takuya to grab hers and Tommy's.

That was just what the flame warrior did. He used his new wings to fly over the man-made (or digimon-made) hole and took the Spirit closest to him. Gigasmon's Spirit, as was kindly pointed out by Bokomon. It glowed as it disappeared into the D-Tector.

Next he grabbed the second closest Spirit, which happened to be Tommy's. It too glowed as it was tossed back to Tommy. The kid had already taken his D-Tector out of his pocket to catch the thing. Happy and relieved smiles were shared between the group when the symbol of ice showed up on his D-Tector.

"Yeah! This is better than birthdays and Christmas combined!" Tommy happily cheered.

Zoe did feel a pang of envy when Tommy, who's been missing his Spirit for a shorter amount of time, got his back first. But then again, he is younger, so he would need all the protection he could.

'It doesn't matter.' she told herself. 'Takuya will grab mine next. I'll have Kazemon back in no time.'

Unfortunately, when BurningGreymon dove to get Zoe's Spirit, the black silhouette changed and turned into Grumblemon. The Fractal Code and Spirits were gone now too. With a cry, BurningGreymon went in for the attack again. He had to get Zoe's Spirit back!

But it was too late. Grumblemon was too quick and dug a tunnel to escape the battle, still in possession of Zoe's Spirit.

Zoe gasped when she saw Grumblemon escape. No, not again! He escaped again with her Spirit. With Kazemon. The girl didn't even notice she was crying until she was pulled into an awkward hug and heard a voice tell her to 'Don't cry. We'll get your Spirit back, I promise'.

She huffed out a laugh. Of course it was Sophia. Returning the favour, most likely, but it did help even if it was just a little.

"Sorry, I'm no good at this...comforting and hugging thing." the other girl of the group muttered.

Zoe shook her head. "It's fine."

 _ **~Skip ahead, skip ahead~**_

The warriors decided to stop and rest at the top of a mountain. There was unfortunately no way around it, and by the time they'd climbed all the way to the top it was already dark. In the morning they would find a way down there, but for now... There were still some things that needed to be discussed.

JP crossed his arms, staring at Sophia and Koichi. "So... Are you gonna tell us or what?" The others looked up at his sudden voice. What was JP talking about? The blue-clad boy noticed the confused stares, though. "Oh come on! You can't tell me you forgot about earlier. Afternoon? After the fight with Taky?"

Takuya winced at the reminder, but was no wiser. He still had no clue what JP meant. But the rest of the gang seemed to understand. Did he miss anything?

Sophia's only response was to look away from JP. She still didn't want to tell. What if they thought she was weird? What if not everyone had this...power? Oddity? Sure, Koichi and Koji seemed to have it, but...

Seeing her hesitance, Koichi took charge. With silent permission, of course. "Well... I'm not sure about everyone else, but there's this...oddity I've noticed since I arrived in the digital world." he tried his best to word the situation. "I'm not sure how to explain this, but I've been able to feel whenever a digimon has bad intentions since we got here. The first time I noticed was back at the Wind Factory."

Koji raised an eyebrow. Wind Factory? Didn't sound familiar. It was probably before he decided to join them. Well, if his brother opened up about it, he might as well do the same. "Yeah, I've had the same thing. Noticed it at the KaratsukiNumemon place." he confessed. "It was like the kindness and goodwill just disappeared."

"And the darkness got more powerful." Koichi finished that thought.

The other warriors looked between the dark haired boys, still not understanding what was going on.

"Did...anyone else notice something weird?" Sophia asked softly, still refusing to look at anyone. "Anything related to your elements?" That caught Takuya and Zoe's attention. "I mean, it's just a theory a-and Koichi came up with i-"

She was cut off when Zoe and Tommy suddenly cried out in alarm. Takuya had taken his glove off and stuck his fingers in the campfire. Koji, being the first to snap out of the shock, grabbed his friend's arm and pulled it back.

"What are you doing? Are you nuts?! What are you trying to do, burning your hand like that?!" he yelled in the brunet's ear.

Takuya's eyes remained glued to his hand. "But it's not." he said, receiving a questioning look from the long haired boy. "My hand. It's not burned."

True to his word, there seemed to be noting wrong with his hand. No 3rd degree burns, no black or red skin, no scarring. Nothing. Like he never stuck his hand in the fire.

"Wow." Tommy breathed.

Zoe didn't see the awe in it. "Still, that could've turned out bad. You shouldn't just stick your hand in the fire and hope that it won't burn you."

"I didn't, Zoe." Takuya tried defending his actions. "Back at the forest, before the Bakumon incident, my arm got caught in the campfire, but I wasn't burned."

Zoe sighed. Boys and their recklessness. "Hey, now that I think about it. There was that time at Togemon's school." She looked over at Sophia and JP. "Remember? The wind just suddenly picked up when we had to leave. And it stopped at the exact right time at the edge of the forest."

"That's too big of a coincidence." Koji said.

Tommy was excited by what he was hearing. "So all of us have some kind of powers? Like superheroes?"

"And they all relate to your elements somehow." Bokomon piped up.

The digimon already had his book out to look for any kind of similar occurrence that may have happened in the past. But there was non of course. As far as they all knew, the seven of them were the only humans ever to arrive in the digital world. Oh how far from the truth that was.

"Maybe it has something to do with you guys Spirit evolving?" Bokomon suggested.

Sophia shook her head. "No. I've heard people's thoughts since the ride here."

"You hear our thoughts?!" Oops...

"N-not all of them. Just strong thoughts, I guess." Seeing the still shocked faces, she added. "It's not like I can control it..."

"Have you tried?" JP snapped. "My thoughts are private!"

Sophia huffed. He was the last person she wanted to hear this from. "Please. Like you have any trouble speaking your mind. I don't need this power to know what _you_ think."

"What was that?!" JP growled.

"I don't know about you, fatso, but I can't control some strange power I don't understand!" Sophia snapped, unleashing all built up anger towards the boy. "You don't even have your power yet! How could you possibly understand!? You know what? Never mind! I don't wanna hear any more shit from you!" She abruptly stood up, walking over to where the leaf-beds were. "I'm going to bed! Goodnight!"

Eventually everyone went to bed as well. Their minds were all stuck thinking about these 'powers' they suddenly posses. Why did they match their elements? Was it because they were Legendary Warriors? Then why did it happen before some of them became warriors? Why did they even have powers in the first place?! They are human! Humans shouldn't have powers! Then again, humans also don't usually become monsters in a different world and are tasked to save said world...

Everyone eventually managed to fall asleep, though an uneasy sleep.

* * *

Alright, so I strongly believe the reason Takuya went nuts as BurningGreymon is because of the circumstances in which he got his Beast Spirit. He's the only one who got his Beast Spirit while it was possessed by another digimon (or, well, _**possessing**_ another digimon). And he was the only one who got his Beast Spirit while Spirit Evolved already.

I don't think anyone can resist the power that comes from a Beast Spirit, not even Shamanmon. I think his lust for power, how small it might have been, was what caused BurningGreymon to possess him.

Lust for power can translate pretty well in the animal world as 'showing dominance'. When one of the pack wants to overthrow the current pack leader. He wants to get his _power_ over the pack, and he does so by _fighting_.

What do you guys think? Make sense? Complete bullshit? I dunno, just throwing some ideas~

*Used the Japanese animation for this.

"But you woke up." ("But _you're welcome_.")

copied ( _compete_ )

I forgot to check for more...


	13. Better An Egg Than An Egg Shell

Hiya guys

Sorry for the long wait, I've kind of hit a creative slump these past months. I haven't felt up for creating anything. I still haven't completely gotten out of that slump, but it's been getting better.

I've been having some changes with my job (because yes, I actually have a job now) and things have been one big question-mark for a while. It's nothing major, but enough to worry this anxious mess. Most of it has been worked out now luckily, so hopefully I can stop worrying and start writing and drawing again.

I can't promise regular uploads like I did before, but I will try to not let you wait for another 5 months.

And PhoenixP016 to answer your question: _Is Vibramon a bat?_  
Kind of? She's based of Noibat and Noivern, both of who are bat-like pokemon, but I wouldn't say she **is** a bat. I mean, she's the warrior of sound, what other animal would I use for her beast form? ;) _(Btw, sorry this is so late! I only just noticed your comment 3 days ago when I decided to write again, otherwise I would've replied sooner)_

Anyways! As always, I hope you enjoy~

 **Disclaimer: Do I look like I own digimon? Hu-? Oh, right, you don't know what I look like... Well I don't own it, alright! I only own Sophia, Sonamon and Virbramon, any and all changes to the original plot (trust me, there's gonna be quite a few of that) and other characters that aren't mentioned on the wiki page.**

 **(It's been so long since I've written my disclaimer that I had to go back to my previous chapters to look at what I wrote... That's just sad)**

* * *

"I can't believe it." Takuya sighed in relief. "We're actually here."

"My legs can believe it..." JP moaned.

Finally after another full day of traveling they did it. The gang finally made it to the Forest Terminal. You'd be surprised how fast and easy you can travel when you're not constantly hunted by a Spirit-hungry warrior.

Takuya pointed ahead of him. "There's the sign." he said. "Forest Terminal."

There were multiple sighs of relief. It was official. They made it. They finally made it to the Forest Terminal!

"Um... But shouldn't there be a Trailmon here?"

Koji's words halted the relieved thoughts for a moment. There should be a Trailmon, shouldn't there? They could see the station a little bit farther into the fog, but there was clearly no Trailmon.

Looking around and behind him, Takuya found nothing to indicate a Trailmon was close. "Well, maybe they're on their way back right now?" he said. Though he even doubted his own words.

Sophia shook her head. "Not likely." she muttered. "Trailmon are kind of cowardice, and this place has just the right amount of creep to keep them away."

Takuya groaned. "So that means more walking."

JP followed Takuya's example, until he noticed something in his peripheral vision. There was a building just on the left of them. Although he couldn't read the Digi-Code that was on the sign and the flag outside, it was a pretty save bet it was a restaurant based on the mouth-shaped door, smell and the little bit of interior that he could see.

And a restaurant means food! "Hey, who cares about a Trailmon? There's a restaurant here!"

"Sure, who cares about our easier mode of transportation. Because food." Sophia mocked in an over-exaggerated tone.

JP growled at the girl, but otherwise ignored her as he went over to the restaurant. Koichi grabbed Sophia by the arm, just get her alone to talk, but she responded by ripping her arm out of his grasp. The dark-haired boy sighed. Things were definitely not going well in their group.

When they arrived at the doors a peacock-like digimon, which Bokomon already told them to be a Deramon, was waiting for them behind the counter.

He greeted them with a friendly smile. "Welcome, weary travelers."

"What do you have to eat?" Tommy asked.

It sounded kind of rude how he said it, but Deramon took no offense. "Ask instead what I don't have to eat." he bragge- I mean told the kids. "Step right up, friends, and don't worry about money. For you, the first meal is free."

Well, of course JP didn't waste any more time and ran inside. The others gave each other a look of approval. Free food is always good for them. Besides, they hadn't eaten since the night where Bakumon gave Tommy a nightmare, which was two or three days ago, so they needed this meal.

They followed JP into the restaurant, much to the delight of Deramon who immediately started cooking. Within a few short minutes everyone had a bowl of noodles in front of them. Deramon's Yolk-Surprise, with raw eggs on top of the noodles. A quick thank you to the chef and then they dug in, or tried to in some cases because they weren't used to chopsticks *coughcough*.

On their first bite, everyone's expression changed from happy and delighted, to outright grossed out. This food was disgusting! The little bit that they ate was immediately spat back in the bowl as exclamations of disgust were uttered.

"We must respectfully decline your kind offer of food." Bokomon said politely after everyone had calmed down. Although... How much of that respect was left after literally screaming out every insult towards the food the kids could've thought of?

"I can't feel my tongue anymore..." Ah, and Neemon took another bit of respect off of that.

Deramon was already pissed at their earlier behavior. Neemon's words were the last drop. "Alright, alright. What's the big idea?" he asked, vein popping. "I can't believe all of you are gonna turn down free food."

"That was food?!" Zoe asked in disbelieve.

"That wasn't food, dude. That was trash." Sophia told the digimon. "Actually, no. That's an insult to trash. What did you do? Boil it in sweat socks?"

Deramon nodded. "Indeed I did."

Stomachs dropped. They just... ate something boiled in...sweat socks?!

"Koichi... Cover Tommy's ears..." Sophia growled lowly, trying to remain calm but failing. As soon as Tommy's ears were covered, hell broke lose. "What the actual fuck?! You're a fucking idiot if you think that shit tastes good!" She took her bowl of food in her hand. "You can take this and shove it down where the sun don't shine! Goddammit!" She shoved the bowl in his face and stormed out the restaurant. "Piece of junk. Stupid idiot chef. Ghaa!"

The guys took a moment to look at what just happened. That was... unusual. Very unusual.

Tommy trembled a little. "I-I still heard it... That was scary." He'd never seen her get that mad before.

Deramon took the bowl off his beak, staring at the humans in front of him with a mighty glare. "Get out of here, kids. You're bugging me." He was doing his best to sound dangerous. "Go on and go to the Forest Terminal. They say no one's ever returned from there."

The gang wasn't effected by this rumor. "Yeah well we'll just take our chances. I doubt the Forest Terminal will be any worse than this food." OOH! Burn from the warrior of flame!

That finally broke Deramon's angry facade. "Oh, come on guys..." he said with tears running down his face. "I was just trying to be nice, that's all."

"Being nice has nothing to do with cooking." Takuya told the digimon. "And rumors don't matter to us. We've already been told that we have to go to the Forest Terminal."

Without another word, Takuya stood up ans walked out of the restaurant. The others followed soon, going to where they were just a moment ago. Sophia was already there, sitting against the sign. Not sure how to react to her outburst earlier, they just gave her a small notice that that it was time to move on and left.

Zoe found herself in a familiar scene when she saw Sophia breaking twigs. She knelt down next to the girl who kept avoiding eye contact. Zoe sighed. "What's wrong, Sophia?" she asked. "You can't convince me this is about what Deramon served us." Sophia just shrugged. The blonde let out another sigh. "I thought we were friends, but you can't even tell me what's wrong?"

"And you can't respect when I don't want to talk." Sophia said softly. "I just feel bad right now, Zoe. I don't want to talk about it."

She stood up from her spot and moved to join the boys, Zoe following behind. The boys had already moved into the fog before the girls joined them. Since there was still no Trailmon, what other choice did they have?

When they arrived at the Trailmon station, they found it completely abandoned and covered in a thick fog. You could barely see a few feet in front of you, but it was clear enough to notice the lack of Trailmon and digimon.

"This place is empty too!" Koji remarked.

Zoe nodded as she looked around. "Yeah, and just a little bit creepy."

It was unsettling how quiet it was. It's unnaturally quiet.

Takuya took a deep breath. "Keep your eyes peeled, guys." The reasons why were left unspoken, but understood.

"For what? All we can see if fog." Okay, understood by everyone except JP.

Takuya resisted the urge to roll his eyes. That is the exact reason he said to keep their eyes peeled! "Well, there have to be some people here."

"But what if they're all..." JP shrunk into himself as he walked. "Ghosts?"

Sophia on the other hand, did not resist the urge to roll her eyes. "Ghosts don't exist in the digital world, only digimon that look like ghosts. Like Bakemon, Soulmon and Phantomon."

"Who, who and who?"

"Never mind..."

It didn't help, though. The kids were still unsettled by the idea of ghosts. Even when they climbed the stairs that were somehow built inside of a tree they didn't stop looking around for the 'ghosts'. They didn't even stop to question why there were **stairs** built inside of a **tree**. Or maybe they just stopped questioning the digital world a while ago, who knows?

The staircase ended at the base of a branch, which was shaped perfectly to walk on. The moment they stepped out of the stairway, they were met by an ear-piercing noise which can only be described as nails on a chalkboard combined with screeching, like sirens singing out of water*.

"Stop that noise!" Sophia screamed, covering her ears like everyone else.

Soon after she screamed, her D-Tector gave off a soft glow. The noise became softer and softer, until it was finally gone.

Takuya carefully peeled his hands off his ears, just in case the noise returned. "Did it stop?" he wondered.

The others were still covering their ears, so they didn't hear the question. They did hear, however, that the screeching had stopped, or at least softened. Carefully, they also removed their hands from their ears, and they were relieved to find it all silent again.

"What was that just now?" Tommy asked.

Koji frowned. "Looks like someone doesn't want us here."

"But we can't go back now." Takuya argued. He looked towards the stairs. The noise stopped for a reason. "Let's keep moving."

They followed the stairs on the branch for a few minutes, only stopping once they arrived at a two-way. One was going straight ahead, while the other branched off _(hehe~)_ to the right.

"Great." Takuya huffed. "Now what?"

An odd sound came from Tommy's D-Tector. Out of curiosity as to what caused it, he took it out. The screen was lit up for some reason. Not even a second after taking it out, a holographic map appeared on screen. A pink dot in the middle quickly shifted to the right.

So...They had to go right? Tommy looked up from the screen to the path. Well, it's worth a shot. "It's that way." He pointed the group to the stairs on the right.

Takuya looked at the smaller boy. "How do yo-" The question died on his lips when he saw the map.

Without further questioning, the gang went right. Unfortunately they were stopped yet again when there were a bunch of trees blocking the path. Did they go the wrong way after all?

Before they had the chance to turn around, JP's D-Tector made the same odd noise as Tommy's had. And once he got it from his pocket, a green light engulfed it, and the trees parted.

"And for my next trick." JP responded jokingly.

"You'll finally shut up?" Was Sophia's bitter reply, which earned her another glare from the plump boy.

Zoe's D-Tector eventually helped as well, clearing the fog that was becoming thicker and thicker the higher they got. Now with the fog gone, the group had a view of a castle in front of them. It was still quite a bit of walking, but from what they could see...

The thing was huge, sticking out above the trees and seemingly made entirely of crystal. At least, if the shimmering and glows were anything to go on, but this was the digital world so who really knows? It was quite beautiful however. And...somehow supported by one branch? Never mind, stop questioning it.

"This place is beautiful." Tommy awed.

Koji frowned, crossing his arms as he inspected the place. "Doesn't mean it's not dangerous."

Tommy looked over at Koji with a questioning look on his face. "What if this is where the person from our D-Tector lives?" he asked. "We did get a message to come here."

"Well, should I knock?" JP asked, already having placed his hand on the double doors.

Koji frowned. "I still don't think it's safe."

Of course right at that moment, as if to prove Koji wrong, his D-Tector glowed. Koichi's did the same. One of the double doors was suddenly surrounded in white light, while the other had a dark glow. As the lights of both devices and the doors dimmed, the doors swung open.

'Of course the twins open the twin doors.' Sophia snorted.

"Well at least they're polite, I guess." Takuya smiled nervously, unsure about this whole situation.

JP crossed his arms, frowning. "Yeah, that or eager to lure us in there."

No one moved, opting instead to stare at the castle doors. There was nothing and no one in the courtyard, so that shouldn't cause any problems I guess... But should they really go in there? No one had even the faintest clue as to who or what was waiting for them behind those doors.

Zoe eventually got sick of just standing there doing nothing. "I say we go inside." she said, placing her hands on her hips in a confident manner. "How bad could it be? Sleeping Beauty used to live in a castle in the forest."

Koji scoffed. "Well, so did the wicked witch."

"Unless I missed something, Sleeping Beauty used to live in a cottage in the forest, not a castle." Sophia added her own thoughts. "And didn't she get cursed into eternal sleep once she returned to the castle?"

"Since when are you the debbie downer?" Zoe asked the other female.

"I'm not." Sophia looked away, crossing her arms and pouting. "I'm just... sticking to the fairytale as I learned it..."

Finally having enough of all the bickering the group decided to just...go in. Should something happen, they had their Spirits to protect them. Should nothing happen, they...still had their Spirits to protect them... There was still some debating on what to do if nothing happened.

Takuya used the door knocker, hoping to get an answer from whoever was inside. Though, there was nothing even after a minute.

"Maybe no one lives here." Tommy suggested. Strange to hear him say it, though. After all, he _was_ the one who, not a minute ago, thought the person from the D-Tectors lived here.

An odd sound from his pocket caught Takuya's attention after his reply to Tommy. He got his D-Tector from his pocket, knowing from before that that device was making the noise. Almost immediately after he held it in his hand, it glowed a bright red, and the doors swung open.

Their happy celebration had to wait, however. On the other side of the door was a not-so-welcome reception waiting for them. Yeah, waiting with a staff pointed at Takuya's face.

"Get back, Cherubimon scum!" The digimon holding the staff ordered.

The children stepped back a little, observing their new opponent. "Uh... I-isn't that Wizardmon?" Takuya asked, noting his similar appearance.

"But he's a different color." Tommy said, remembering that digimon with a different color are most likely a different digimon.

"And meaner." JP added.

"That's Sorcermon. A champion level specialized in ice magic, rather than electric magic like Wizardmon." Sophia rushed through her explanation in a monotone voice, not expecting anyone to listen to her.

As expected, Takuya didn't listen. "We can beat him." he said, striking a fighting pose. "Just like we beat Gigasmon."

Sophia looked away. "That was you..." 'I couldn't even pull the others out of the mud...'

Sorcermon, who'd been standing motionless observing the children, finally spoke up. "Gigasmon?" he questioned. "But he's one of Cherubimon's goons."

"Yeah?"

"So... You're not allies with Cherubimon?" He never lowered his guard even as he asked this.

Zoe frowned at the thought. "Are you kidding?!"

"Why would we ally ourselves with someone who wants to destroy the world?" Koichi asked, disgusted by the thought.

Koji stepped up a little. "Look, why don't you put that wand down, okay?" he tried to coax the digimon into calming down. "We're all on the same side. Isn't that obvious?"

To their surprise, Sorcermon actually lowered his wand. "This is what comes of fighting too much. Everyone seems to be an enemy." he explained regretfully. "I apologize, friends. How did you find this place?"

"We got a message that told us all to come to the Forest Terminal." Takuya began explaining. "But there was no one there, and when we kept walking we ended up here on your doorstep."

"My solitude has driven common courtesy from me, I apologize." Sorcermon bowed. However, Koji didn't miss the digimon muttering something beforehand. "As your friend said, my name is Sorcermon. Please, come in. I have something important to show you."

Not knowing what Sorcermon said before his apology didn't help gain Koji's trust. Although he still felt the kindness in the digimon, he had his suspicions.

Sorcermon led the group through the hallways. They noted that even the interior of the castle was all crystal. Crystal walls, crystal floor, crystal doors, crystal...whatever those things on the ceiling were. Probably lamps.

"Where are you taking us anyway?" Koji asked the wizard digimon, getting more suspicious the farther into the castle they got.

"To meet someone." Was Sorcermon's simple answer.

Koji crossed his arms. "I bet it's a trap."

Tommy rolled his eyes at the older boy. "You think everything's a trap."

"What happened to 'we're all on the same side'?" Sophia asked him, to which Koji only growled. He didn't like it when his words are used against him.

"Caution is wise, friends, but only within reason." Sorcermon stopped walking once they reached a set of doors. "This is no trap, this is a prophesy."

He opened the doors, revealing a huge room. It was empty aside from a few pillars holding up the ceiling. And when I say empty, I mean empty. As in, there was no one there, no one to meet.

Koji was the first to notice. "So where is he?" he asked.

Sorcermon looked up to the ceiling. "Up there." The group followed his gaze up to a floating crystal. He brought them here to meet a rock? "Allow me to introduce our salvation, Seraphimon."

Seraphimon? But that's like a digimon name. How is that rock a digimo- Wait... Now that they looked closer, there was a faint outline of a humanoid figure inside the crystal.

"Um... Are we supposed to know who that is?" Zoe asked. By Sorcermon's introduction he sounds pretty important.

"Seraphimon was one of the three Celestial Digimon chosen to rule this world." Sorcermon briefly explained.

Takuya looked back up at the crystallized digimon.

It's not that he didn't want to help, but... "So what are we supposed to do? He's all frozen up." They couldn't even reach this supposed 'ruler of the digital world'. How were they supposed to help him? H-her? It? Man, digimon are confusing!

"Perhaps not for long." Sorcermon's voice broke through his thoughts. "There is a prophesy-"

 _"Let your lights shine as one."_

It was the voice from the D-Tector! But it was different. It sounded like it came from all around them rather than just the D-Tector. Though, a look around the room revealed no one was there.

It shocked Sorcermon to hear it, it didn't even matter that the voice cut him off mid-explanation! "That was Lady Ophanimon!" he exclaimed, looking around to search where it was coming from. "She's the one who asked me to watch over Seraphimon."

"Ophanimon?" So that was her name. "She must be the voice that told us to come here." Ya think, Taky?

"It's all falling into place." All eyes were back on Sorcermon. What is falling into place? What is he talking about? "I brought you here because the prophesy says that one day a group of wayward humans will free Seraphimon."

Free... And free him how? This only brought on more questions than answers. And it also brought some complaints from Bokomon, but no one paid attention to that. Well, I guess some did, but his complaints didn't matter right now.

The children were left wondering what the prophesy meant. I mean, obviously it means that they were to free Seraphimon, but again...how? Zoe noticed some odd noises coming from her D-Tector, taking it out for inspection. JP, of course, followed her example.

Come to think of it... Didn't Ophanimon always talk to them through their D-Tectors? In fact, didn't she _give_ them the devices? Maybe the D-Tectors were the way to help free Seraphimon!

Zoe was quick to voice these thoughts. All that, and the fact they were making strange noises right after Ophanimon told them the prophesy _and_ they were standing in the room with the digimon they were supposed too free! It was too big a coincidence.

Sure enough, said devices answered. The screens of each D-Tector lit up, shooting a beam of light into the air. The kids moved them around a little, trying to see what they were supposed to do with these beams. But Takuya quickly figured it out. Aim them at the frozen Celestial.

There was a reaction as soon as the lights touched the crystal. White and red sparks flew off it as the crystal melted and disappeared. The humanoid digimon, which they could now see was covered in silver and blue armor with several pairs of golden wings on his back, was slowly lowered to the ground. Not once did he face the human children.

Sorcermon was in awe. The prophesy was true. Lord Seraphimon was free! "Welcome back, Lord Seraphimon." He welcomed the Celestial as he landed before him.

"It's good to be back, my faithful servant." Seraphimon said in a regal voice. "You have done well." Seraphimon was silent for a moment, trying to recall what had happened, and why he woke up the strange position that he had. But he came up blank. "Sorcermon, tell me. There's so little I remember."

"My lord, when your defeat seemed imminent, Ophanimon was able to get you to safety." the white-clad digimon explained. "She sealed you away from danger so you could be revived after the trouble had passed."

That stirred a few of Seraphimon's memories. "Ophanimon! That's right!" he called her name in worry. "Has she been harmed? Why isn't she here?"

Sorcermon's gaze dropped to the floor. "Truth is often unpleasant, I'm afraid." He did not want to be the one to tell his Lord this, but he had no choice. "No one knows where she is." He took his gaze of the floor to look and gesture at the human children. "But these humans have been in contact with her, so all is not lost."

The angelic digimon finally turned around to face the group. His wings ruffled in delight, but dropped slightly when he actually caught sigh of them. " _These_ humans? But they're only children."

Koji rose his eyebrow. By the sound of it, he expected other humans. And how would he know they were only children if the digital world had never seen humans before?

"Yes! But there also Legendary Warriors." Bokomon stood up for his companions. "And if not for them, you'd still be stuck to the ceiling."

"Legendary Warriors? Impressive." Seraphimon had to admit. They did not look like they had it in them.

Takuya, finally done with being left out of things, spoke up. "Hey, listen, just what is going on here?" he asked, a little more aggressive than necessary, but what did you expect? "We've been led all over, getting our snot kicked out, and we don't even know why we were brought into this crazy world!"

"Yeah, someone owes us some answers." Zoe wholeheartedly agreed.

"And I think you're that someone. So tell us what's going on!" Koji demanded off the Celestial being.

"Um… Please?" Tommy asked, trying to remain nice towards the ruler of the digital world.

Seraphimon, however, seemed to take no offense to the rude way the children demanded answers from him. It was as Takuya said, they were brought here with no idea as to why, and led into a world of problems that shouldn't be theirs. He could see why that would frustrate them.

"Very well, brave ones I shall tell you. If you want answers, you will have them." Seraphimon's wing shone, creating a visual of digimon fighting in the humans' mind. "The story begins long ago when Human Digimon and Beast Digimon warred against each other. Their battle laid waste on the Digital World, befouling what was once beautiful. But Lucemon appeared and brought an end to the fighting." A being covered in light descended down upon the fighting digimon, stopping their battle. "For a time he ruled in peace. But soon he was corrupted by his own power."

"My, this story sure sound familiar." Bokomon interrupted, much to the warrior's annoyance.

"The Ten Legendary Warriors arose to free the oppressed and abused Digimon." Visuals of different kinds of digimon fighting the one covered in light flashed before them. Some noticed the similarities they shared with their Spirits. "They battled valiantly, but Lucemon proved stronger than expected. That is until they were joined by two other brave warriors, who were given their honorary title as Legendary Warrior later on." Two other feminine-looking digimon appeared, landing a few more blows to this Lucemon character. "After a fierce struggle, they were able to defeat the tyrannical Lucemon!" With a final, destructive blow of all warriors working together as one, Lucemon was defeated.

"After peace was restored to the Digital World, champions were chosen to protect that peace; Cherubimon, Ophanimon, and myself. But as before, our time of harmony was short-lived. Cherubimon wanted to control the Digital World by himself, and so, attacked me." The visuals finally stopped playing in their minds. "You know the rest of the story, thanks to Sorcermon. Ophanimon rescued me and brought me to safety here, where I have slumbered and regained my strength until I was awakened by you, Legendary Warriors!"

"Luckily you came just when we needed Seraphimon most." Sorcermon spoke up. "The Digital World is in a crisis as you can see."

He held out his wand which, after a few seconds, showed a hologram of the digital world in ruins. Huge chunks of earth were missing, there was hardly any healthy green color anywhere on the planet, it just… It didn't look good.

"Man, the Digital World looks like Swiss cheese!" Takuya mussed. Was this why they were called here? To save it, to restore it to what it once was?

"If it keeps up like this, soon there won't be a digital world left." Koichi pointed out. And how were they supposed to save something that didn't exist anymore.

Sorcermon nodded. "And the future looks even more bleak. You see, Cherubimon has sent his minions to destroy it."

Even more?!

The Celestial digimon didn't like the looks of it at all. "It is even more serious than I'd imagined. We must find Ophanimon at once!" he demanded.

"Yes, my lord. Your combined might can truly defeat Cherubimon. And of course, you'll have my help." Sorcermon's comment surprised the great leader. "While you slept, it felt as though I had too, and I've only dreamed of fighting at your side against that evil creature."

Sorcermon… "Dear, brave Sorcermon. You are a true friend. Thank you. Your courage gives me strength."

"I am as you thought me."

Seraphimon turned to face the humans again. "And I must thank you for your courage. All would be lost were it not for you. But now I must ask that you do one more favor for me." Of course! Anything! They were happy to help now that they better understood what they were fighting for. They would happily stand by his side to battle that evil Cherubimo- "Before the fighting begins, go back to your own world." Say what? "Your task is done, and it's too dangerous for you to stay."

"But, we're Legendary Warriors." Takuya argued.

"Yeah, we can't just walk away now." Zoe told him. It didn't even matter that she didn't have her Spirit, she is still a Legendary Warrior and she won't leave.

Before Seraphimon could fire any counter-arguments, the door behind the warriors burst open with a loud crash. Grumblemon had caught up with them again and used his hammer to break down the door! And this time it seemed he brought some friends with him.

Grumblemon snickered. "Oh good, whole brat brigade here."

"And ready to fight!" Takuya said, striking a fighting position already.

"You better be." Grumblemon said, still smirking at the warrior children. " 'Cause me introduce other digimon who defeat you. Ranamon"

The feminine digimon on the right side of Grumblemon waved smugly. "Charmed, I'm sure."

"Arbormon."

The brown digimon on Grumblemon's left spoke up next. "You're in for it now, right."

"And lastly Mercurymon."

The last digimon, the metallic digimon with mirrors on his arms, stomach and face gave them an unimpressed look. Odd seeing as he had no face. "So these be the whelps who hast given thee so much trouble? Pathetic!"

The evil digimon went back and forth taunting each other as well as the human warriors until Seraphimon put an end to it with one simple demand. "Tell me where Ophanimon is! Now!"

"Me no care about her. Me just want Beast Spirit back, so give it!" Grumblemon rose his hammer into the air as he said this, ready to attack.

But the warriors were ready too, stepping forward with their D-Tectors in hand. "Why don't you come get it, _buddy_."

 **"EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION!"**

 **"AGUNIMON!"**

 **"LOBOMON!"**

 **"BEETLEMON!"**

 **"KUMAMON!"**

 **"LOWEMON!"**

"S **ONAMON!"**

Everyone stood strong in front of the digimon lord and his servant. They were about to prove them just how strong they could be! Just watch Seraphimon!

The evolution alone already had Sorcermon in awe. "The Legendary Warriors have returned."

Yeah, well… All except one (or two). Zoe stepped back behind Sorcermon, away from the fight. "If that big doofus hadn't stolen my Spirit, I'd show him a thing or two."

Grumblemon just grinned at the reminder. "Yeah? Well, did and now I show you thing or three!"

Challenge accepted. Agunimon slammed his fists together, building up power for his attack. "You sure you don't wanna get warmed up first?" he asked. **"PYRO PUNCH!"** **

Unfortunately the group of evil warriors dodged his attack, splitting them up. Lobomon went for Ranamon, aiming his **howling laser** at the Southern lady. But she was fast and just dodged again. Same for Arbormon when Beetlemon tried to hit him with a **thunder fist**. Even Grumblemon avoided Kumamon's **crystal freeze**. Lowemon and Sonamon mixed their attack together for Mercurymon, but he too managed to avoid the combination of **sonar boom** and **shadow meteor**.

"Thanks for the overwhelmingly _underwhelming_ lesson in combat." Ranamon mocked their lack of experience. "Now let me show you how it's done." She put her hands together, creating a dark storm cloud that headed towards the warriors. **"DRAINING RAIN!"**

Her attack zapped all strength and energy from the warriors, making them more vulnerable for what came next.

 **"ROUNDHOUSE PUNT!"** Arbormon disconnected his foot from his body to hit Lobomon and Beetlemon with a long-range kick.

Agunimon was send flying into the wall by Grumblemon's hammer, right next to Kumamon, who's gotten thrown against it by Ranamon. Lowemon and Sonamon were also lying beaten on the floor, former having been hit by Arbormon's kick and latter having been struck with Grumblemon's hammer as well.

The evil warriors smiled wickedly at their defeated opponents. That was almost too easy. "Go get your Beast Spirit, rock head. Fetch~" Ranamon mocked the warrior of earth. Really… Losing his Beast Spirit to these weaklings?

"Be careful or you get smashed next, Ranamon!" Grumblemon warned as he raised his hammer, ready to smash those pathetic humans to pieces.

From the sidelines, Sorcermon's eyes widened. No! "Grumblemon, no! You cannot do this!" Ignoring Mercurymon's 'I beg your pardon', he stepped forward. "You shall not leas us down the path of ruin. I've waited a life time to see peace restored to the Digital World, and you're not going to stop it from returning!" He rose his staff, aiming at Mercurymon, who's been keeping him from interfering. **"CRYSTAL BARRAGE!"**

It didn't faze Mercurymon, though. **"DARK REFLECTION!"** He simply absorbed the attack in his right mirror, sending it back twice as strong and corrupted through the other mirror.

The stronger, corrupt **crystal barrage** broke the crystal on Sorcermon's staff, breaking the source of his power. And although he was barely hit by the actual attack, the loss of his power-source felt as if it might as well have.

Seraphimon caught his dearest friend before he hit the ground, worried over his safety. Mercurymon thought this to be the perfect moment to strike. He charged, but Seraphimon noticed the movement, taking flight before he came close. The Celestial digimon landed before the warriors, trusting them with the safety of Sorcermon, and turned around to face the corrupted warriors.

'I apologize, dear friends.' **"STRIKE OF THE SEVEN STARS!"**

Seraphimon's attack split up, hitting the warriors of earth, wood and water which send them crashing into the ceiling with a loud explosion. Hopefully they weren't going to recover from that too soon.

"Please, I ask again that you return to your world and leave this to me!" Seraphimon pleaded with the young warriors.

"There's no way we'll leave!" Kumamon argued.

"Yeah!" Beetlemon agreed. "Even if we wanted to, we don't know how!" Not a very strong argument there, buddy…

"We can help you restore peace. We may look weak to you, but with our strength combined-"

Lowemon's argument was cut short. "I can't fight them _and_ keep you safe! You must go!"

"Are you kidding?" Agunimon looked at him as though he was crazy. "You can't fight all those guys by yourself! I mean, come on! You just woke up!"

"You need us!" Lobomon chimed in.

 _"Why will they not leave? They are mere children. Not even the warriors of old were this young."_

Sonamon's eyed widened. 'Warriors of old… The tree!'

"And what about the previous warriors, then?" Sonamon decided her luck. "The previous humans! Did you object to them this much as well?"

"EEHH?!"

Ignoring the confused shouts of her friends, she continued to stare the Celestial digimon down. "And don't pretend that they don't exist. I saw them. The TV-forest? The original twelve trees?" No answer. "If they could do it, so can we!"

"That was different!" Seraphimon finally replied.

"Please, stop!" Sorcermon interrupted. "We should be fighting them!"

Turning their focus back to the evil warriors, they stood ready to defend themselves. The evil warriors charged their attacks, and so did Seraphimon.

But what no one could have seen coming was Mercurymon. Right at the moment Seraphimon launched his attack, Mercurymon appeared in front of them out of thin air, using his mirror to absorb the attack, just like before.

 **"DARK REFLECTION!"**

The newly corrupted attack was send back at Seraphimon, who had no time to dodge. His own attack, made twice as strong now, was more than enough to bring the Mega to his defeat. Mercurymon happily absorbed Seraphimon's data, much to the horror of his most loyal follower, and was turned into nothing more than an egg.

Mercurymon smirked wickedly. "How ironic." He laughed. "Seraphimon sought to defeat Cherubimon, but now his Fractal Code shall be used for our end!"

Too distraught by these events, Sorcermon didn't even acknowledge the taunts. His lord… "No! It can't be!" He was turned into a digi-egg… "The hope of the Digital world is gone!" How were they to succeed now? How was he to fight by Lord Seraphimon's side, if Seraphimon was no more?

"No it's not!" Zoe jumped into action, sprinting past the evil warriors, who seemed to have forgotten she was even there, and grabbed the egg before it could float away. The data-covered egg received a sturdy shell in her arms. "Maybe we can bring him back if we have his egg! Right, Sorcermon?"

Of course! "Yes! We must protect that egg at all costs!" The warriors took a defensive pose as Zoe came closer. Like they weren't already planning on protecting it. "If we can get the egg to Ophanimon, she may be able to revive Seraphimon."

Zoe, Bokomon, Neemon and Sorcermon took cover behind the warriors. No one but them was gonna lay a hand on Seraphimon's egg! They stared each other down, as some useless taunting went back and forth, wondering which side was gonna strike first.

Apparently… Neither. "Arrogance shall be your downfall." was all the warrior children heard Sorcermon say before the crackling of glass was heard.

A bright light shone as the crystal covering on the wall behind them shattered! While the evil warriors were blinded by it, Sorcermon pulled the other warriors with him to the secret door. While running down the huge flight of stairs, the warriors de-Spirit evolved back to their human forms. Ranamon's **draining rain** , as well as the rest of the battle had finally caught up to them, leaving them low on energy. But running on adrenaline worked surprisingly well too.

An explosion from behind didn't waver their escape. They had to keep following Sorcermon, or else it was going to end badly for them. At the end of the hallway was a door with a big, red button next to it.

Sorcermon pretty much punched that button to open the door. "You may escape through here." Was all he said as the doors opened, revealing a yellow, get-away Trailmon. It was small, almost too small for their group, but it would have to do.

They ran for it, Takuya and Koji jumping up front while the others took the compartment in the back. Zoe shrunk in on herself to make place for the wizard digimon. Though, when she didn't feel or hear anyone else jumping on after JP, she got curious.

'Wait… Where's-' She looked back towards the door. He was still standing there! "Sorcermon! Hurry up!"

Though, the digimon remained where he stood. "I'm not coming." What? Why not? "The egg is all that matters now. I must insure its safety. Now go! There isn't much time."

"You don't stand a chance!" Takuya exclaimed, almost gasping when he saw the evil warriors approach. The others saw them as well. Takuya and Koji had to use all their willpower to not jump off Trailmon and Beast-Spirit evolve.

"Take care of Seraphimon. He's our last hope."

But they couldn't rush in. Not now. Not anymore. With one last nod of confirmation, Sorcermon closed the door and Trailmon took off.

Tommy gasped, almost sprinting toward the exit if it hadn't been so crowded. "No! We won't leave you!" he yelled. His eyes never left the door, that small hope that Sorcermon would change his mind was still there.

Though, when the sounds of fighting came to an abrupt end with a pained shout from an all too familiar voice, that hope was diminished.

"Sorcermon!" Tommy cried.

"Tommy, that isn't helping anyone." Zoe snapped, though ineffectively with the tears in her eyes and all.

Sophia pulled the kid into a hug, both with tears streaming down their faces. This was crushing. Utterly crushing.

Zoe dried her own tears as she finally sat down near the doors. "I can't believe this is all that's left of Seraphimon." A big, strong digimon, the shared ruler of the world… reduced to a small, fragile egg… She hugged it even tighter to her body. "I'm never gonna let this go."

"D-don't worry, Zoe." Sophia tried to smile at her, but it was strained. "Digimon always get reborn."

"Yes, but as long as those wicked warriors posses Seraphimon's data, the egg won't hatch anytime soon." Bokomon said. "If ever."

Sophia glared at him. "I was trying to stay positive, Bokomon. But you had to ruin it, didn't you?"

"I'm only telling the truth, rather than spread false hope."

"Well, sometimes the truth isn't what we wanna hear!"

"Knock it off, both of you!" Takuya demanded. "That egg may be the most important thing in the Digital World right now. It's its last hope, and you guys think it's a good time to argue?!" Murmurs of apologies came from the two. "All of Cherubimon's forces are going to be gunning for it, but no matter what happens, we've gotta protect it. We can't let Sorcermon's sacrifice be in vain!" Right… Sorcermon… "I hate to say this, but it's up to us now, guys."

" _Time for us warriors to get serious!"_

* * *

*If you've watched Harry Potter you'll know what I mean.

**You can NOT convince me that this attack was supposed to be pyro darts! Why is pyro punch the attack with the most dubbing errors?!

Errors:

Ghosts don't _**live**_ in the digital world... - Yeah! Ghosts don't live at all! Wth 13 yeah old me?!

"I can't keep you all save, you must go!" _(I can't fight them and keep you safe!)_

And no through wards/towards mistakes this time! Improvement!


	14. No Whamon

Hiya guys~

See? I promised I wouldn't wait for another 5 months to upload ^^"

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and/or Sinterklaas, or whatever other holiday you celebrate (Haven't I done this before?).

Well, New Years is around the corner so I figured 'What better time to upload a new chapter?'. Unless you live in those parts that already celebrated New Years of course, in which case... Happy New Years?

And of course a Happy New Years in advance (or not) to everybody else. Good luck with your new years resolutions if you have any.

And thank you for sticking with me through this story. I know it has it's ups and downs, but thanks for staying anyways. I appreciate it.

Oh and before I forget. From this chapter on I've officially changed Sophia's last name from Nedena to Daneven (Daa-neh-vuhn). I thought I was being clever with her first one, it being a backwards version of a Dutch surname that's in my family. But it has long lost its charm, not to mention I don't even know for to pronounce it anymore. So yeah...

As always, I hope you enjoy this chapter~

 **Disclaimer: A new year. Another year of me NOT owning digimon or any of its characters. I only own Sophia, Sonamon, Vibramon, any and all changes to the original plot and any other character that doesn't appear on the wiki** **page.**

* * *

The walls of the castle had long since disappeared out of sight. Only the underwater tunnel system and the ocean outside were in view. Not that anyone was actively looking at it. The human warriors were too distracted by the rapid speed of the get-away Trailmon as it took turn after turn. Koji even made the dumb mistake of making a sarcastic comment about the speed towards said Trailmon, who took it literal and sped up much to the dismay of the other passengers.

Adjusting his grip again after a particularly sharp turn, Takuya turned his head to the back. "Zoe! Is everyone okay back there?" He asked her, silently wishing he could just see through the Trailmon, see his team directly.

Zoe did a quick look around the small space. JP was holding onto the wall, trying his best not to fall over. Tommy, Bokomon and Neemon were right next and in front of her, keeping an eye on the egg. Sophia was sitting in the corner next to JP, curled up in a ball similar to her position, and Koichi was next to the brunette on his knees.

All in all… "We've been better." Zoe decided to answer Takuya with. I mean, it wasn't a lie, especially with the castle event still fresh in their mind.

Suddenly the Trailmon spoke up. "One way of fun, the other way we're done."

Wondering what Kettle meant, Koji looked ahead. There was a split in the road. One way fun, other way they're done? Oh crap! Which is which?!

"Oh man." He'd have to inform the others too. "There's two of them!"

"What?" Takuya asked, a little in a panic. Seeing the two roads, he understood what Kettle just said.

"How do you tell which is the right way?" The bandana wearing, blue boy asked their ride.

If Kettle had shoulders, he would've shrugged nonchalantly. "Dunno. The direction of the Trails is up to the rails."

Before the duo could begin to wonder what that meant, they got a demonstration. The rails in front of them switched from left to right, and that without a railroad switch in sight. Did it just do that randomly? Did it know where they needed to go? Or would it send them to their possible doom?

They would need to push those worries aside for now. They went right, which admittedly was a lot smoother. Takuya could finally adjust his grip without fear of falling off in another sharp turn. The humans and digimon out back could finally breathe and move a little.

But Zoe didn't relax. She kept her tensed up position to protect the egg. It had to be kept safe!

"May I have a word?" Zoe's eyes snapped open and up towards Bokomon. She hadn't even realized when she'd closed her eyes… "I want you to give me Seraphimon's egg. I'll take care of it now." Wait what? Without waiting for an answer, Bokomon took the egg from Zoe. "I'm sorry, but I happen to know more about its special needs."

"Special needs?" Zoe asked. "Like what?" How would an egg even have needs? Was it like a chicken egg, in the way it needed warmth to hatch? But, wait… Bokomon said it wouldn't be able to as long as Mercurymon had its data. So then what?

Bokomon answered while trying to stuff the egg in his waistband. "It must be protected and nurtured by someone with life experience."

"Have you been a mommy before?" Neemon asked, confused by Bokomon's reasoning.

"You sure look like one." Tommy remarked. Bokomon with an egg stuffed in his waistband was looking similar to a pregnant woman. Tommy didn't even resist the urge to touch the egg.

Though he was promptly smacked away. "Hands off, bub!" What's the big deal? When his mom's friend was pregnant, she didn't have a problem with him touching her belly. "We must wash our hands before touching the egg. Honestly what were you thinking? You might get germs on him." Uhh… Bokomon went into overprotective modes. After telling Tommy off, the gnome digimon looked affectionately at the egg. "Don't worry, baby. Mama will keep you save from them."

"Heh, he sounds and acts like a mom too." Sophia snorted lightly, not having moved from her curled up position.

Bokomon just shot her a deadpanned look. "Must you make such remarks every time?" He was just about reaching his limit with this girl.

Sophia rose her head to snap at him. "Well, I'm sorry if that's my way of coping with-…"

"With what?" Bokomon asked, equally as snappy.

The girl just burrowed her head back into her arms. "Nothing!" she growled. "Never mind."

Takuya, who'd still been listening to the guys in the back, wanted to give his say too. Though, before he could he saw something up ahead that made his heart just about stop. The rails ended…in a jump! "Hold on, guys! It's getting rough again!" he warned the others, leaving out the part of the jump to hopefully not worry them.

Apparently that was a mistake, hearing Bokomon's screams. But then again, he had no right to be this scared. He and Koji were holding on to the Trailmon FROM THE OUTSIDE! For Pete's sake!

Luckily Kettle managed to land them onto the rails on the other side and all went fine after that. There were a few more twists and turns, as well as one more split in the path, but they arrived at the end of the trail safely.

Everyone stepped off, glad to be back on solid ground and not in a Trailmon that goes FLYING OFF THE RAILS! As Kettle drove backwards, supposedly back to the castle, the children bid him goodbye.

"That's pretty scary." Tommy said as they watched Kettle leave. "He's gonna go backwards all the way home."

Sophia nodded, crossing her arms. "Yeah, and with that hole in the rails too."

Whelp, it was about time to leave. Takuya noticed that at the end of the rails was a tunnel. It seemed to be the only way out. "Come on, guys. This way!"

He ran towards the tunnel, the group following him close. They may have shaken off the evil warriors for now, but who knows how quickly they could catch up to them. It would be best to get as much distance in between them as possible.

Light shone in the distance. That could mean one thing. "Hey everybody, there's an opening up ahead." Takuya notified the others behind him, who may not have seen it yet.

"Let's just hope it gets us outside." Koji remarked.

When the gang arrived at the opening, the smiles they were wearing dropped. This wasn't outside. It was an underground cavern, as was nicely pointed out by Zoe after JP complained about it. Takuya and Koji did a quick scan around the cavern, looking for an exit. There weren't any obvious ones, though.

"Where's the exit?" Takuya wondered, silently hoping that Koji or any of the others noticed something that he hadn't.

That hope was quickly squashed. "Must be one somewhere." Koji said before he took off to look for one. Takuya soon followed, as well as Tommy.

"We should help too." Koichi said, looking over at Sophia, who simply nodded.

They split off in different directions, each hoping to find something that looked like an exit. There was hardly anything to find, though. Most of the cavern was just solid walls with the odd cave here and there, one of which Sophia happened to find. It was a rather deep one though, deeper than the ones Zoe and Koichi had found earlier.

It was a dead end again, no surprise. "Of course…" Sophia sighed. How long was this going to take anyways? She was about to turn back and help search, when her D-Tector suddenly began making odd noises.

When she took it out of her pocket, she noticed the screen had lit up white. There was a light green symbol faintly glowing.

" _...ia?"_ A voice… _"So...ia? Is th... …ou?"_ And it knew her name.

A quick glance told the girl that nobody was close, so she answered. "Hello? Who's this?" Her eyes didn't leave the faint green glow in the center of all the white. Now that she looked closely… It seemed familiar. Of course! "You're the other warrior, right?"

" _I... a...! ...as."_ There was a pause, or the connection had cut off. It wouldn't surprise her with the awful connection she had. Hardly a word could be understood from the person on the other side. Sophia could just barely make out it was a female voice. _"C...ubim... ...ok m... ….rits. I ...d ...ur ….lp."_

"I-I don't understand." Sophia said, trying her best to make out what this girl was saying. Lp? There seemed to be an 'e' sound before that. Elp? Help? "Do you need help?" She decided to test her luck.

" _Ye...!"_ Yes! She was right~! Oh crap! She was right! _"W...re ...re you?"_

I'm-" Wait… Where was she? She was in a cavern, but that wouldn't help. They were just at Seraphimon's castle, but she highly doubted this person would know where that was. That and she didn't want the girl to get herself in danger by asking about Seraphimon's castle. That could bring wrong attention. "I'm somewhere near the Forest Terminal." she eventually settled on. It would be the safer option to ask about. "Where are you?"

The voice on the other side took somewhat longer to respond this time. _"So...wh...e da...k..."_ Dark? _"L...e co...tan... nig...tim..."_ She could just barely make out the words 'night time'.

Let's see. Dark… And night time. It was still daytime when they arrived at the castle, so it couldn't be nighttime already, right? Even if that was the case, why bring it up?

Dark… And night time… Wait. There was only one place that would be dark during the daytime. "The dark terminal?!" she realized in a panicked state. "Get out of there!"

There wasn't anything left to say. The connection had finally dropped. Sophia just hoped her last message had gotten through. With a heavy sigh she pocketed the D-Tector and dragged herself back to the cave entrance.

Though, when she got there, Zoe was blocking the path. The blonde was staring her down, hands on her hips. "What were you doing there?"

"Searching for an exit?" Sophia told her, though it came out more like a question.

"For this long?" Zoe shook her head in disbelief. "Liar… I thought we were friends. Why would you lie?"

Sophia blinked in confusion. "What? Zoe, we _are_ friends. And I'm not lying."

"But you're leaving things out, aren't you?" The silence confirmed Zoe's statement. "Sophia, if we really are friends, shouldn't you be able to talk to me about it? Whatever 'it' is."

The brunette rolled her eyes, sighing. "Zoe, it's no big deal. I just got sidetracked." she explained. Although one look at Zoe's expression told her she didn't buy it. "Do I really have that bad a rep of not telling everything?"

With her hands on her hips, Zoe nodded. "Yeah, you kinda do."

Well then. "Alright…" Sophia gave in. "I… Someone, I mean, contacted me on my D-Tector." This startled Zoe a little. The only one who'd contacted them so far was Ophanimon. "I'm not sure who it was, I didn't get a name. But I know it was a girl and… and she said she's also a Legendary Warrior."

"Another warrior?" Zoe asked almost breathless. But how? Weren't they the only ones? Where had she been this entire time?!

Before Zoe had time to react to it, something happened that distracted her from her thoughts. A burst of water shot from the small pool. Not only that, but it hit JP and Tommy dead on, knocking them into the cavern walls and bruising them front and back.

"Tommy!" A chorus of name-shouting from all warriors came. "Tommy! JP!"

And rightfully so. Tommy seemed to be doing the worst after the blast hit them, concerning everyone including JP, who'd arguably been hit harder since he was closer.

But there was one other thing bothering him. "Hey, how com only Koichi yelled out my name?" Don't they care? Though that thought was shoved back when his eyes landed on the huge pillar of water that shot straight up from the pool.

"Mamma mia!" "Oh mijn god!" The girls exclaimed in shock and worry.

"Definitely-"

"-not good." You know it's bad when Takuya and Koji finish each other's sentences.

The water pillar broke apart, revealing a brown and blue whale-like digimon. He was yelling, struggling about and shouting about how 'he can't stand it anymore'. All the while Bokomon tried explaining how Whamon was usually a gentle digimon, and how he was oddly out of his element here.

Though at the moment Koji couldn't be bothered with that. All he knew is that they had to stop him before he hurt someone else, or before his struggling collapsed the cavern. He turned to Takuya to help him, which he agreed with hesitantly.

" **EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION!"**

" **AGUNIMON!"**

" **LOBOMON!"**

Lobomon and Agunimon jumped on Whamon's back, struggling to hold on to the moving digimon.

"Alright, big guy, just calm down." Lobomon told him.

"Yeah, what is the matter with you?" Agunimon asked, neither of them sounding very friendly or calming. Way to be sensitive…

Their order and question didn't help, and it showed when Whamon jumped halfway out of the water yelling. "Leave me alone!"

Seeing how this wasn't working, Sophia decided to try another approach. After all, Sonamon had a nice little trick up her sleeve.

" **EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION! …SONAMON!"**

Hovering in front of the frantic digimon, she readied her move. **"S** **OOTHING SOUND!"**

A nice, calm melody filled the cave*. Like magic, it seemed to calm down Whamon when he actually stopped screaming. It even lessened the pain Tommy and JP were feeling, though not a lot. Sonamon stopped only when Whamon was calmly floating in the water.

Zoe was the first to speak up when the music stopped. "You seem to be feeling a little bit better now, Whamon." she noted. "Can you tell us why you were so upset?"

"Ooh, I hate this place." Whamon whimpered. "I just wanna go back to my home, the ocean. Until very recently I was swimming, happy and free under the sea not a care in the world. Then one day I saw this delicious looking glowing plant, I couldn't help myself I decided to take a little nibble. Oh, they were good." He'd flashed back to what happened afterwards. The loud noise that came from the surface. The strong current, stronger than what he could swim through. Falling down, the rocks, getting deeper and deeper and farther away from home. Oh, it was horrible and scary. "Next thing I knew I was stuck in this place with no way out." he cried. No, literally. He began crying his eyes out, and he didn't even have (visible) eyes.

Agunimon rolled his eyes at the sight. "Here we go again."

"You don't have to be such a big cry-baby." Lobomon commented, also annoyed at this step backwards. They had just gotten him calm!

"He's sure losing a lot of water. Is that normal?" "No idea." Bokomon and Neemon's comments didn't help either…

JP had just about enough of this guy. First he hurts him and Tommy, then goes around blathering nonsense, then when he's finally calmed down he goes on another crying spree! "This is embarrassing. Does he really think all that blubbering is gonna help him?" JP complained, before a jab of pain shot through his stomach, which he quickly clutched tightly.

"Hey, are you okay JP?" Tommy asked. Why was he still feeling pain, while he barely felt anything? Just how hard was he hit?

"I'll be fine once I get this pain to go away." JP said through gritted teeth, not noticing Sonamon playing the melody from earlier again.

This only caused Whamon to cry even louder, being reminded of what he did in his panic. "And-and-and-and-and it's all my fault that you guys got hurt, I'm so sorry!"

"You're forgiven, alright!" JP snapped, not sounding too forgiving.

Zoe finally decided to defuse the situation before it got any worse. "Well, at least you have some company now." she started with the positive. "We're stuck here too. Maybe with your help we can figure out a way to escape."

Whamon immediately and abruptly stopped crying. "Huh? Okay!"

All seemed well…for like 2 seconds. There was a sudden earthquake and all the water in the pool disappeared. Whamon whimpered in pain at the bottom of the hole, worrying the children. Though, the worry was quickly pointed towards the lump of earth rising up in front of Whamon. They unfortunately recognized that everywhere by now.

"Grumblemon!"

Indeed, Grumblemon had caught up with them. He stared up at the group of children with that stupid grin plastered on his face again. "Nowhere hide now." He was just so proud to have found them. "Me find you. Me so glad we see each other again, only this time me steal Spirits good!"

Lobomon struck a defensive pose. No way he was gonna get caught of guard this time. "You're an annoying little gnome, you know that?"

"Yeah, what he said!" Agunimon agreed. "Oh and by the way, you're not stealing anything from anyone ever again! We're not afraid of you anymore, Grumblemon!"

"Nananana nene, Grumblemon." the gnome digimon mocked the warrior of flame. He pulled out a familiar flask. "You will be."

He pulled the cork off the bottle, spraying the contents everywhere. Circles appeared everywhere in the cavern, on the floor and the walls and even the ceiling.

Grumblemon snickered. "You may taken Gigasmon Spirit, but me have other powers! You no can beat me! Your Spirits be mine!" Rocks floated from the circles, forming into Golemon in an instant. "Me first to find you, so Mercurymon and others no will have you now! It too late for them! Meet my new friends!" A final, bigger chunk of rock appeared under Grumblemon, forming the biggest Golemon of the group. "Get them!"

The Golemon jumped into action, immediately aiming to attack the group. On Agunimon's command, Lobomon, Sonamon and himself jumped in to defeat them and defend the others.

" **PYRO TORNADO!"** Agunimon, after appearing out of the tornado, kicked four Golemon that were surrounding him. There was an explosion from where they were kicked, making them disappear into dust.

Lobomon grabbed his light sword. **"** **LOBO KENDO!"** He ran towards a group of Golemon, swinging his sword all the way, beating 5 or 6 of them.

Sonamon was surrounded by 5 Golemon, all jumping for her. **"SONAR BOOM!"** She used her attack in shield form, getting it up just in time for the impact. The shield grew bigger and, with a final burst of power, burst apart and exploded into soundwaves, taking out the Golemon.

Meanwhile, the other kids were surrounded by Golemon and driven into a corner. Koichi had already Spirit evolved into Lowemon, but there were too many for him to take out while still protecting his friends.

Frantic, Bokomon called out. "Excuse me, gentlemen. We could use some assistance over here."

"Be right there." "We're on the way." "I'm not a gentleman, but I'm coming anyways."

The trio of warriors went to help Lowemon, but two hands stopped the male part of that group. Arbormon, who'd arrived to help his fellow warrior, had disconnected both his arms to grab Agunimon and Lobomon by the throat. Sonamon stopped mid-flight to turn back.

'Oh no…' She looked back and forth between the warriors held by Arbormon and her friends cornered by Golemon. What to do, what to do?

Grumblemon noticed her hesitation and snickered. "What you do now? Both need help, but only one you save."

Sonamon gritted her teeth at his taunting. _'Sonamon! Sonamon, can you hear me?'_ she heard Agunimon's voice in her head. _'If you can, then don't worry about us. We'll get ourselves out of this. You go help Zoe and the others.'_

Looking over at Agunimon, she nodded. The flame digimon grinned, knowing she heard his thoughts.

Sonamon surprised Grumblemon by turning her back to the warriors of flame and light and heading for the others. This couldn't be! He'd counted on her saving those warrior runts! Oh well, time for plan B.

He jumped from Golemon's shoulder towards the flying warrior. **"SEISMIC SLEDGE!"** He brought his hammer down on the unsuspecting warrior's back, sending her falling to the ground, making her de-spirit evolve.

This and seeing Agunimon and Lobomon in the grip of Arbormon spurred something in JP. "Let them go!" he yelled, running forward to help. But a jolt of pain stopped him in his tracks.

Zoe and Tommy quickly jumped in to help him and stop him from running into danger. "No! You can't fight in this condition." Zoe told him.

"She's right, the best thing we can do now is hide!" Bokomon exclaimed from where he was hiding already.

Whatever he and Neemon were talking about didn't matter to JP. He couldn't just hide and give up like that! Even if Tommy said he was too badly hurt, he just had to do something!

"Come on, Zoe, think." Zoe muttered to herself. JP caught her looking at her static D-Tector. "Oh, if only I could Spirit evolve."

While that was going on, Arbormon had pulled the two warriors back to 'make them dance' by repeatedly punching them up and down. Sophia had also finally woken up, just in time to dodge being crushed by a Golemon. Lowemon who'd been fighting Golemon vigorously was also brought to his knees, along with Agunimon and Lobomon. All three could barely keep up their Spirit forms, as shown by the fractal code surrounding them.

"Don't stop." Grumblemon told Arbormon. "Me can smell Spirits. Hurry up and get for me!"

Tommy watched his brother figures from the sidelines. The fractal code worried him. "I don't know how long they can keep this up." When he saw JP walking forward from the corner of his eye, he got even more worried. "JP, what are you doing?"

"Tommy?" JP barely waited for confirmation of the younger boy. "I'm going in. You watch out for Zoe."

"He'd lost it!" "Yeah, he can't stop them." Zoe and Tommy were equally worried about JP's safety. He was the most hurt out of all of them, and he still wanted to go out and fight?!

It did amuse Grumblemon, though. "That it biggie boy, Spirit evolve. Fight me! Or is you too weak?"

"He's just egging you on! Get out of there!"

'Does… Doesn't he mean 'edging you on'? Is that a pun because he's carrying an egg or am I missing something?' Sophia wondered, running from another Golemon.

Well it didn't matter to JP. "I'm not gonna let him win. I won't stand here and let Grumblemon hurt my friends."

Tommy had to agree on that. "I'm with ya."

" **SHADOW METEOR!"** Lowemon got back up, destroying the Golemon that was chasing Sophia.

"Thanks, Lowemon!" She grabbed her D-Tector, like JP and Tommy had already done. The three of them made brief eye contact before turning their attention to their opponents.

" **EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION!"**

" **KUMAMON!"**

" **BEETLEMON!"**

" **SONAMON!"**

"Go, Golemon!"

"You ready to rock these blockheads?" Beetlemon asked Kumamon.

The polar bear gave a quick nod. "Yup, let's roll."

In time too, the Golemon had already closed in on them.

" **THUNDER FIST!"** Beetlemon attacked the ground, splitting his attack in four streams of electricity. Each went a different way and hit a Golemon, destroying them upon impact.

" **CRYSTAL FREEZE!"** Kumamon froze three more, which also destroyed them.

Lowemon summoned his lance as a duo of Golemon came closer to him. When they jumped, so did he, jumping right in between them and turning mid-air. **"SHADOW LANCE!"** He used his lance to more forcefully throw them to the ground where they shattered into dust.

Sonamon again found herself surrounded by a group of Golemon, but this time it was on purpose. She knew what to do this time. **"SONAR BOOM!"** she surrounded herself in the attack, flying circles and hitting each Golemon repeatedly. Like the ones before, they were destroyed easily.

'Grumblemon should really look into creating better henchmen.' Her eyes widened. 'Err…Nevermind!'

" **SULFUR PLUME!"** The shout of an attack brought Sonamon back from that dumb thought in time to see Beetlemon de-spirit evolving.

Grumblemon snickered. "Weak human. Fighting you I not even work up sweat!" He grabbed his hammer from Golemon's body, getting ready to strike with it. "Arbormon! Take care them, while me get Spirit!"

"I'm on it Grumblemon." Arbormon replied, reconnecting his hands to where they belong. "But first I've gotta change into something more comfortable."

The warrior of wood was then covered in fractal code. The human warriors knew what this meant by now. The big guy had his Beast Spirit.

" **ARBORMON! SLIDE EVOLUTION! …PETALDRAMON!"**

Speaking of big guy… That Beast Spirit is huge. Bigger than Gigasmon and probably even bigger than BurningGreymon if he stood on two legs.

While he kept Agunimon and Lobomon busy, Grumblemon jumped off Golemon to attack the kids. Starting with the weakest one. **"SEISMIC SLEDGE!"**

He brought his hammer down, but before he could hit anything- **"BLASTING SPOUT!"** He was hit by an attack from behind.

Whamon's attack was powerful enough to send Grumblemon crashing into the wall behind the humans, even denting the cavern wall. Though, no one lingered on that sight too long, especially not JP. He felt it before he saw it. A Spirit.

"No way!" Kumamon exclaimed in surprise. Both surprise that Whamon just took care of a Legendary Warrior and because he just spewed out a Spirit.

"Wha...mon… I can't believe it. A Beast Spirit." JP was frozen, staring at the Spirit. Was it his? Really his? What was he saying? Of course it's his. He could feel it. There were noises around him, but none of it made much sense. He just saw the Spirit and- Wait, who was. Why is Grumblemon getting closer to the Beast Spirit? He can't have it! It's his! No one else is allowed to touch it!

He quickly grabbed his D-Tector. "Not today! It's my turn to play!" JP got the Beast Spirit away from Grumblemon just before he could touch it. Good. It was his! **"** **EXECUTE! BEAST SPIRIT EVOLUTION! …METALKABUTERIMON!"**

"Oh my! It's the Legendary Beast Warrior of thunder!" Bokomon exclaimed, somehow still in surprise.

Zoe stared at the digimon in awe. "Monto bene." she breathed. "JP turned into him?" She knew he was pretty bulky as Beetlemon, but really…

MetalKabuterimon stuck out his arms to attack, but it didn't go the way anyone thought. Instead of aiming his **bolo thunder** at Grumblemon, he began firing it all around. Seems JP couldn't control the Beast Spirit either. That meant only one thing. Run. Which was exactly what Zoe, Bokomon, Neemon and Kumamon did.

Another shot hit the ceiling, causing more debris to fall. Any more of this and they were all gonna be buried.

"He's completely out of control! Head for cover!" Lobomon called out.

"Right behind ya." Agunimon said, running after Lobomon.

Lowemon dodged another chunk of falling debris. "Sonamon, we have to get out of here!" he called up to the flying warrior.

"Right!" she called back, already flying ahead.

Just in time too. The part of the cavern where all of them were standing soon collapsed, burying Petaldramon under a pile of rocks.

While everyone else headed for cover, JP regained a little control over his Beast Spirit. It was enough that he could finally aim his attacks at Grumblemon, who stepped back in fear.

"Easy now, friend." he said, nervously glancing at the canon-arms.

Was he… Was he trying to be buddy-buddy with him now?! After all that he's done, chasing them around the Digital World, attacking them, destroying homes, stealing Zoe's and Tommy's Spirits! He really thought he could try to be all friendly with him?!

No way! He knew who his friends are, and it's certainly not him! "You're no friend of mine, Grumblemon!" he yelled out. "You don't even understand the meaning of friendship!" He had gained complete control now. He went down, leaning on his arms and aimed his turret at Grumblemon. It was time to end this. **"** **ELECTRON CANON!"**

The blast from the turret immediately destroyed the last Golemon, and it damaged Grumblemon enough for his fractal code to appear. MetalKabuterimon looked at it in satisfaction, but how was he supposed to scan it? His hands were canons… But Beetlemon had hands!

" **METALKABUTERIMON! SLIDE EVOLUTION! …BEETLEMON!"** He stepped up to Grumblemon. This has been a long time coming. "It's back to the end for you pal." Urghh… Calling him pal gave such a foul taste in his mouth. " **FRACTAL CODE DIGITIZE!"**

Grumblemon's body disintegrated into data bits, leaving only an egg in his place. While the egg floated away to who-knows-where, the Spirit of earth was absorbed into JP's D-Tector. Kazemon's Spirit, immediately after being released, floated towards Zoe, who was more than happy to welcome her back.

"Hey, welcome back!" Zoe cheerfully greeted Kazemon back. It felt so good to have her back, like you wouldn't believe.

A sudden thud and groan got Zoe's attention off her reclaimed Spirit. JP had collapsed again, groaning in pain. Oh yeah, he went into that fight badly hurt!

"JP!" Zoe ran towards him, kneeling down next to him when she was close enough. "JP, are you okay?" What was she asking? Of course he wasn't okay. Look at those bruises!

But, JP just smiled at her. "Got your Spirit back." he told her. Was he gonna brag- "At least I did something to make you happy."

Oh. That… "That's so sweet." He just wanted to make her happy? Well, he succeeded. "Thank you, JP. I really mean it."

"Happy day!" Tommy cheered. Zoe's happy, JP's happy, Grumblemon is defeated so Koji and Takuya will probably be happy too. Everyone is happy!

"Run!" Except maybe not. Another earthquake happened as Takuya, Koji, Koichi and Sophia came running their way. "Didn't you hear me?!"

The happy trio soon found out why they were running. The ceiling turned into fractal code. MetalKabuterimon's attacks on it weakened it to the point where it could collapse at any second.

Unfortunately the warning came too late. The second the group was all back together again, a tower of water fell from right above them, filling up the cavern almost instantly. They tried swimming through the currents, tried getting their head out of the water, but it was no use. The currents were too strong, and soon everything turned black.

But not in the way of passing out. Everything just…suddenly turned dark, the water was all gone now too. No one spoke, afraid of finding out what happened.

When another few minutes (or was it minutes? It was hard to tell) passed where nothing happened, Tommy spoke up. "Did we die?" he asked carefully.

"Uhh… I don't think so?" Zoe said, though she was unsure about it herself.

"It smells like something did." JP complained, pinching his nose to try and block out the smell.

Something opened up in front of them, catching their eye. It looked like…teeth? A mouth? Were they in someone's mouth?! And was that water out there?

"It's the ocean." Tommy realized.

The others made another realization. "It's Whamon!" They were in the mouth of Whamon! Weird, but at least it was safe. And he was safe too! That's a relief.

"I don't know how you saved us, but thank you." Bokomon gratefully thanked the digimon.

Zoe nodded, not that the whale digimon could see it. "Yeah, and welcome home Whamon."

"Oh, I'm the one who should be thanking you." Whamon said. "Without your help, I might have been stuck in that cave forever. Hold on everybody. We should be reaching the island very soon."

Huh? Island? The gang looked up ahead. Sure enough there was an island there. Well, it was still quite a ways away, so they might as well get comfortable.

At least…if there wasn't something on Takuya's mind. "Hey, Sophia?" The brunette girl looked up to him. "What did you mean back at Seraphimon's castle? About the 'previous warriors'?"

Now that he mentioned it, that was something she said, wasn't it. All eyes locked onto the brunette, who began feeling uncomfortable from all the attention.

"Well? Spill it." Koji told the girl. "Just what did you mean by the 'previous humans', huh?"

"Koji." Koichi lightly scolded his younger brother, not that it had much effect.

Sophia shook her head. "It's fine, Koichi. I guess I made a bad reputation of keeping secrets." She took a deep breath and continued. "Well… Back at the TV-forest I… I found some trees. The original twelve that Bokomon was talking about."

Bokomon looked surprised. Had this girl who was constantly mocked him actually remembered something he said? Well, he still had to object there. "That is impossible! Those trees have been hidden away for thousands of years. No digimon has ever found them. They're merely a fairytale by now."

"I know what I saw, Bokomon." Sophia told him. "There were twelve trees in a circle, all connected by the roots. They were separate from all other trees, but also surrounded by them." That's…actually accurate to the fairytale description. "There was a voice that was, for some reason, leading me to them. And-" She stopped herself before she said too much.

Tommy's curious head perked up. "And what?"

She took another deep breath. She was here to spill the beans. No more secrets. "I saw humans. The trees showed other humans, like a slideshow. They weren't in the human world, but here. And they had digimon partners." she paused. "There were humans here before us."

JP crossed his arms, still skeptical. "That doesn't explain why you think they're warriors."

Oh right. "Because I saw them evolve." Sophia said. "It wasn't Spirit evolving, but it was similar. They combined with their digimon and became the Ancient Warriors. They said something like 'DNA evolution'?"

Silence. That was a lot to swallow. There were humans here before them. And they were warriors. The original warriors! How did that work? That was thousands of years ago. Doubt there were subways to take humans to the digital world thousands of years ago. And merging with partners?

Koji perked up scowling at the older girl. "When were you gonna tell us? Why keep it secret until now?!"

"Well, I'm sorry if there was never a right time to tell you!" Sophia snapped back. "First there was the Bakumon incident, then you run away, next the BurningGreymon incident- sorry Takuya." The goggle-headed warrior winced. That was still a sore spot. "Then Gigasmon attacks **again** , and then there was all that stuff at Seraphimon's castle. I never found a right time to bring it up, not to mention I forgot about it until I heard Seraphimon think about them." She took a couple of heavy breaths. Eventually she stood up and went to the edge of Whamon's still open mouth. "I-I'm gonna get some fresh air." Was all she said as she climbed out and on top of Whamon's head.

The others sat there in silence. This was a lot to take in. If all that was the truth, then humans have been here before. Humans have protected the Digital World before. Well, that would explain why digimon recognized humans in the first place, like Bokomon when they first met. Wait, how did Bokomon know? Urgh- Pocket that question for later.

But really, how were humans here? It was thousands of years ago. People don't live that long- not even close. It shouldn't be possible. Was there something they were missing?

They turned their gaze back outside, to the island that was getting closer and closer. Whatever it was, they would have to push it aside and hopefully figure it out another time.

* * *

*I kinda imagine the Poke-flute melody playing here.

A two cleavage ( _a split in the road_ ) That is the last time I'm using google translate…

earth spirits be mine ( _your_ Spirits be mine)

through wards (towards) OH THE GLORIOUS RETURN! A few chapters of not making this mistake, but we're back!

Pedaldramon (Petaldramon)

We should be reaching the island shortly. (We should be reaching the island _very soon)_ I'm not even sure what happened here. Those don't even sound the same.


	15. Beastie Girl

Hiya guys~

Sooo… You guys remember that when I said that I wouldn't wait another 5 months to upload a new chapter? Yeah… Me neither apparently.

My bad... I really need to get back to using that schedule I made ^^"

Anyways~! Happy Pride month everyone! And to anyone planning to use this time to come out, good luck~

Well, hope you enjoy

 **Disclaimer: Never have I ever owned Digimon Frontier or any of its characters *doesn't put one finger down*. Never have I ever owned Sophia, Sonamon and Vibramon, any and all plot changes, and any character that isn't mentioned on the Wiki page. *Puts one finger down* Is that how the game's played? ...Whatever.**

* * *

True to Whamon's words, the gang arrived at the island soon after their argume- discussion. The subject of the previous humans, the previous warriors if their assumptions were correct, still lay heavily on their mind. It'd have to be pushed back, though. They were here!

After saying their goodbye's and thank you's to Whamon as the giant digimon left, they were kind of left standing there. On an island. With possibly no way of getting off…

"So… There he goes." Koji remarked, reluctantly watching their (possibly) only ride leave.

Takuya resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Nice of you to point out the obvious." Though he had to agree it was inconvenient, they really shouldn't keep Whamon from his home any longer than he already had been.

So now they were left wondering what they were gonna do now. Explore the island seemed like the most logical option, of course.

But why do that in such gloomy moods? At least, that's Zoe figured. "Don't be such boys~!" she exclaimed joyfully while running up the rocks.

"My dear Zoe, what has gotten into you?" Bokomon asked. Confused about the girl's sudden burst of joy.

As answer she just pulled out her D-Tector. "You can't blame a girl for feeling good on such a beautiful day. Especially a girl who has her Spirit back."

"And let us not forget who has a Beast Spirit now." JP reminded everyone, equally joyful.

"Let's hear it for JP, the princely Beast of thunder!" Zoe made an exaggerated gesture to said boy.

JP in return bowed all 'princely' to Zoe. "And Zoe, princess of the summer breeze."

"And Takuya, king of 'I'm gonna be sick'!" Takuya looked around from where he was standing. There wasn't much to see, though. Mostly just boulders and water and some trees higher up. "Anyway, since we're here we might as well take a look around."

All in agreement they left the shore and went a little higher up and began to explore. They walked among the trees that looked surprisingly similar to the palm trees in the human world, except the fruits growing on them were purple and not at all similar to coconuts.

After a few minutes of walking JP made an astute observation. "You know, I can't help but notice that it's summer and we're at a beach." Really? You don't say!

"I noticed that." Zoe giggled.

"How could I not notice?" Sophia muttered irritably, tying her jacket around her waist. Too hot for long sleeves, thank you.

Tommy grinned up at them. "You know what that means."

"Summer vacation!"

"The waves!" "Shell hunting~" "Lot's of sunshine!"

"Yeah! Put it all together and whadda ya got? The beach, baby!" He propped his foot on a rock, posing in front of the sea with a biggest grin on his face.

Sophia snorted. "I think you forgot to add the sand to that equation. No beach without sand, dude."

While the others continued their little banter on summer vacation, Koichi couldn't find himself to enjoy it too much. His mind was on the conversation he had in Whamon, the one he held in private, away from everyone else.

 _~Flashback~_

 _Koichi watched as his friends and brother went to the edge of Whamon's mouth, watching the island getting closer. He was gonna join them when a sound from his pocket caught his attention._

" _ **H-hello?"**_

" _H-huh?" Koichi looked around, but found nothing. The sound seemed to come from his pocket, but the only thing there was… His D-Tector! Of course! He quickly grabbed it from his pocket, eyeing the strange symbol on the screen. "A symbol…" That meant someone was calling him. "Hello?" he finally responded back._

" _ **Is Sophia there?"** the voice on the other end of the line asked. **"I need to talk to her."**_

 _He winced a little, looking up to the roof of Whamon's mouth. Sophia was still sitting outside and she didn't seem to be in the best mood. Best not to disturb her… "Sorry, not right now." he told the girl. "But who exactly is this? I mean, other than a Legendary warrior."_

" _ **My name is Rosalie. Rosalie Daneven."** Daneven?! " **A-are you sure Sophia isn't nearby."**_

 _Koichi shook his head, even though the girl couldn't see it. "Not right now." he replied. "But I know she must be worried about you." she has to be if this Rosalie is who he thinks she is. "Where are you?" At least he should try to ease her inevitable worry._

" _ **I'm at a Burgermon village."** That…doesn't ring any bells. **"Though I'm thinking of moving soon. Which will be hard without my Spirits…"**_

" _What?" That didn't sound like something she wanted to say._

" _ **D-don't tell her that! I'm safe."** He heard her taking a breath on the other side. **"Please don't tell Sophia. She'll only worry herself into a panic attack."** That's…true?_

 _Koichi sighed. Although, he didn't like it, he would keep this quiet. "A-alright… If you think about traveling then please be safe."_

" _ **I wi-… G-…bye."**_

 _~Back to the present~_

After that all he heard was static. She must've hung up. Koichi sighed, looking over at Sophia. He did not like keeping this. He would need to tell her that her sister, at least he guessed it was her sister based on her last name, was in the digital world. Not only that, but she was here without Spirit protection.

First things first. He was gonna tell Sophia today. "Koichi?" Speaking of the devil. "Earth to Koichi, do you receive?"

Koichi chuckled. "I hear you."

"Welcome back." Sophia smiled. "Everyone went to the beach house. Come on." She pulled him along to where the others were waiting for the two of them.

Koji gave his brother a questioning look, to which he smiled, trying to reassure him. It didn't quite seem to work. 'I'll tell you later' he mouthed. That seemed to put Koji's mind to rest.

They stood outside the beach house for a while, observing it. There didn't seem to be anyone around and all the signs were written in digi-language, which was no surprise.

Zoe put her hands on her hips, not at all minding the discovery of the beach house. "What's summer vacation without a beach house?"

Koji, however, was skeptical as always. "This is a little too convenient."

"I don't know about that, but it sure looks awfully comfortable." Tommy said.

Before any further arguments could be made, four figures came running out of the beach house all shouting their welcomes. These toucan-like digimon had the fitting name, Toucanmon, according to Bokomon.

"Honored guests, we welcome you to Toucan paradise." The Toucanmon with the bandanna around his neck bowed to them in some exaggerated manner.

"Thank you, mister Toucanmon." Tommy said, not sure how to react. He never had anyone greeting and welcoming them with this much…enthusiasm? Is that the right word for this behavior? "We're honored you're honored."

Koji scoffed. "Yeah, we're honored, but we're broke."

There was a small pause between the two parties, before the Toucanmon wearing an apron jumped up. "Oh, please. What's a few Digi-shackles among friends?" Is that was the digi-world's currency is called? "And it just so happens that today everything is on the house. By which I mean free, not served on the roof." he practically shouted before bowing the same way the first Toucanmon did. Speaking off, he never did rise from that position…

Bokomon was a little put off by their behavior. "We know what it means." He said, uncomfortably scooting away from the bird-digimon.

"Yeah, and that doesn't seem like a very smart business plan…" Sophia muttered. I mean, really? A day where everything is free? Digimon would only be coming on _that_ day and drive you out of business.

The Toucanmon with the chef's hat panicked. "We just meant that you're our 100th customers, so everything is free for you today!" he…she? …They explained fluttering up and down in a panicked state. "Sorry! So sorry! It was just a small joke! Very small!"

"It's okay." Tommy tried and failed to reassure the digimon.

The last Toucanmon with the safari hat finally spoke up, just as panicked as the one with the chef's hat. "No, no, no! We are humiliated! There's absolutely nothing we won't do to make it up to you."

Nothing they won't do? And everything was free? Sounds like music to their ears! "Wow, really?" JP asked. He needed to be sure.

All Toucanmon jumped up from their bow (finally) and all fluttered around, nodding like crazy. "Really, really, really! Double really!"

The gang followed the Toucanmon inside and watched how the digimon immediately set up a table. The ones with the chef's hat went to the back, where the kitchen was, and was pumping out food like no tomorrow. The guys wearing the apron and bandanna took the food to the table, where the Toucanmon with the safari hat had been laying down cutlery and glasses of water.

They finished in no time, allowing the gang to sit and chow down. It was amazing! Everything tasted like what it looked like and not 'meat flavoured rabbit food' like JP pointed out. But even if everything seemed nice and friendly, Koji remained on guard. He had a feeling these Toucanmon weren't trustworthy, and it was bothering him that everyone else seemed to trust them so easily.

After a good 30 minutes of both eating and taking, they'd finished…what was this? Lunch or dinner? Linner…? Dinch…? Whichever it was, it was finished. They gave their thanks to the chefs, giving some more comments before Takuya decided it was about time to split. This didn't seem to sit well with the Toucanmon, who reacted shocked and a little panicked.

"We've imposed enough on you already." Zoe told them. Don't misunderstand, she was grateful for their generosity, but they couldn't possibly ask for more.

Apparently the Toucanmon thought differently. "Go on, impose!" "Please, we're begging you here. Impose already!"

Err… What? "Thanks, but we're stuffed as ticks." Takuya told them, a little taken aback by their insistence to keep them here.

"But you're growing kids. It won't be long before you're hungry again. What kind of folks would we be if we let you leave without supper?" Ah, so this was lunch then.

"Supper? Are you nuts?" Wait, don't answer that. "I won't be hungry for hours. I might never eat again!" That's a little exaggerated, Taky.

"Please, this is all really kind of you, but couldn't. You've been so kind already." Koichi kindly told them. This whole situation was getting odd.

But the Toucanmon were stubborn. "You say that now, but after being in the sun…" The one with the apron went to the back, right next to the kitchen where a big, white curtain was. "I'm sure you will agree with me. And might I suggest you take advantage of out super value summer special!"

He pulled the rope, opening the curtain to reveal a section with swimsuits and trunks, floaties, tubes, flippers and a water mat! This was awesome! The kids hardly even heard the Toucanmon telling them it was free rental stuff.

Everyone quickly grabbed what they needed and went out back to the changing rooms. Luckily the indecisive Zoe was told there were more swimming suits in the changing rooms, so she didn't end up hauling 50 suits there.

"It's a little strange how badly they wanna keep us here, isn't it?" Sophia asked Koichi, both of them walking in the back away from prying ears.

Koichi nodded. "A little, yes."

"I don't trust them… I'm keeping my D-Tector close, just in case." The brunette clutched the device through her pants.

This surprised Koichi a little. "They can't be that bad." he told her. "Sure, I sense some darkness in them, but it's no more then an average digimon…"

"Still…"

Koichi smiled in understanding. It's hard to imagine something happening to your D-Tector and Spirits. Better safe than sorry. "Sophia, I need to tell you somethi-"

"Sophia! Come on! This door is not gonna open until I'm dressed!" Zoe called from the changing rooms.

The brunette sighed. "Better go, or I'm locked out." she said. "See ya in a bit, Ichi."

Koichi blinked when she left. Ichi? That's… That's new. What isn't new was people interrupting him whenever he tried to talk. Seriously did something hate him finishing sentences or something? _(Sorry, Koichi~~)_

Meanwhile, Zoe shut the door immediately after Sophia walked in and gave her the most smug look ever. "What?" the brunette asked.

"Ichi?" Zoe questioned. Sophia's blush was answer enough, but she pushed on. "You seem awfully close lately~ No, not even lately~ Something you want to tell me?" Zoe was walking circles around the girl while talking, the smug, all-knowing look never leaving her face.

" _Want_ to tell? No, not really." was Sophia's answer. "We're friends. Am I not allowed to be close to boys?"

Zoe giggled, leaning in closely with that smug smile. "Just friends? That blush says otherwise~ You liiiiike him~~"

Sophia ignored her, opting to instead get dressed in her swimsuit. It was a violet one-piece that she really liked. While Sophia got dressed and Zoe skimmed through her options, they heard a muffled scream coming from the boy's room. 'Wait? Bro?! What?!' It sounded like Takuya.

Sophia snickered. "Maybe Taky finally found out Koji and Koichi are related."

Fighting back a smirk, Zoe glanced at her. "Why is that a surprise?" she asked. "I thought it was obvious."

"It is, but Koji didn't know either. Something about being separated when they were young. You'd have to ask Koichi, it's not my story to tell." Sophia explained.

"Don't you mean: 'Ask Ichi'?"

"I will punch you." Soph grumbled. "Anyways, I'm done. See ya at the beach."

Zoe looked up from her swimsuit searching to see Sophia leave with her D-Tector. "You know you can leave it here, right? The D-Tector I mean."

"I know." Sophia clutched the device tighter. "But I'd feel more comfortable just keeping it with me." She shut the door behind her before Zoe could make any more arguments. There was no way she was gonna let Toucanmon get Sonamon and Vibramon. No way, no how!

She clipped the D-Tector to her swimsuit for the time being as she walked to the front. After quickly picking a pair of goggles for under water, she handed the D-Tector to Bokomon. He could keep better watch over it than her if she was in the water. And she wasn't the only one, it seemed. There was a familiar black D-Tector already on the chair Bokomon lay on.

Shrugging it off, she ran into the water. They were never gonna get this chance again, so might as well enjoy it, right?

Though, guilt was gnawing on her, she'd have to let this happen. Can't meddle with events too much, right? That's what all those movies taught, right? …Right… A splash of water to the face brought the brunette out of her guilt-ridden thoughts, bringing her attention to the grinning Takuya.

"What are you doing sitting still like that? Have some fun, would ya." he grinned, quickly swimming away before the girl could take her revenge.

And, oh… Revenge she would get. Putting on her under-water goggles, she dove under water, making a bee-line for the leader. When he came to a stand still, she grabbed his legs and pulled him underwater with her.

After the startle it gave him, Takuya broke the surface again coughing, only to be met with a splash of water to the face, much like what he did to Sophia.

Said girl was happily floating next to Koji with a telling smirk on her face.

"Was that all?" he challenged her.

"I could've easily made you go you skinny dipping, so don't push your luck." she replied casually.

Takuya did decide to push his luck by again spraying her with water, but it mostly hit Koji, which he now realized was planned, and it wasn't effective on Sophia because she was still wearing the goggles. Though, the fun only just got started as a water-fight began between Takuya, Koji and Sophia. Koichi and Tommy also got pulled in it eventually, though JP refused to participate. He'd much rather relax on his water mat.

Unfortunately relaxation was soon cut short by the loud screech of Zoe. Everyone immediately got out of the water and ran to the dressing rooms. Whatever made Zoe scream like that was bound to be no good. Without thinking, Takuya and JP ran inside, immediately asking what was wrong, but were stunned into silence by the view in front of them.

Zoe…Zoe was na-

If her new, even louder screams didn't snap the boys out of their trance, the multiple projectile objects sure did. "GET OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT!"

They did 'get out', but not without some bruises. The group decided it would be better to wait outside until Zoe was dressed and ready. Meanwhile the boys (and girl) would just…sit there, I guess.

While waiting, JP couldn't help but notice Takuya glancing at the twins. It confused him. "Um… Takuya? Why are you staring at Koji and Koichi like they stole your last cookie?"

Takuya crossed his arms. "I just can't believe they're brothers." he mumbled.

Ah, so it was about that. "Why is it so hard to believe? I mean, they're practically identical."

"You just don't understand." Was Takuya's response. "Sophia, did you know?" 'Please say no. You were there on Toy Island. You heard what Koji said back then.'

Sophia smiled sheepishly. "Wish I could say no, Takuya. Koichi told me on the first day here." she said.

"So I really was the only one?" he asked in disbelief, before wincing and going back to clutching his throbbing jaw. Man! Zoe could throw! And it was just a clothes basket that hit him.

Speaking of the devil. Zoe had finally gotten all dressed, immediately apologizing to the two boys.

"So? What happened? Why did you scream before?" Leave it to Koji to immediately get to the point. Though, to be fair, he did actually sound kinda concerned.

Remembering what happened a few minutes ago, Zoe glanced back and forth between the 5 boys. "Because someone's a peeping tom!"

Naturally, JP was picked as the most likely suspect. His obvious crush on Zoe, all the flirtatious remarks and moves he made on the girl. It was only logic that he'd be the one spying on Zoe undressing. Though…

"Come on guys, it couldn't have been JP." Tommy said. Yeah, he did think it was him a moment ago, but that was before he remembered something. "He was swimming with us the while time, remember?"

Oh yeah…

"I forgot." the accusing boys and digimon said in chorus. Only Koichi apologized for his, albeit short, accusation.

"We all have the same alibi." Koji mused.

That didn't make sense. "Then by process of elimination, it was no one?" Bokomon questioned.

"Are you calling Zoe a liar?" JP snapped, still a bit pissed from being everyone's suspect.

"Nah, of course not JP." Takuya tried to calm him down as he got up from the floor. "It's obvious we're not alone here."

Koji gave him a deadpanned glance. "Of course we're not alone, Einstein. Did you forget the Toucanmon?"

"Pretty hard to forget, with how they pretty much refused to let us leave." Sophia added to the suspicion.

That was more than enough to go and search the beach house. Even without looking much, it was obvious the place was deserted. The hats and apron the Toucanmon were wearing were strewn about. It was, like Takuya said, pretty suspicious.

Pretty suspicious indeed, Koji mused. Why would the Toucanmon leave them to their own devices after begging them to stay so much? And they disappeared after Zoe screamed, only adding to the suspicion. Maybe they should Spirit evolve and search for them.

He felt around for his D-Tector for a bit, before remembering he'd left it in the dressing room. Wait!

"Guys… You might wanna take a look at this."

All eyes turned to the wind chime in Sophia's hand. The paper had a picture of Ranamon. The Toucanmon had a chime with Ranamon's picture?

"Oh no!" Koji sprinted towards the dressing rooms, not caring if anyone else followed him. He was almost 90% certain of what was going on, and there was just one thing he had to know before he could make it 100%.

He threw the doors open, ignoring Takuya's shout as he barely managed to avoid being hit with it, and ripped the basket from its shelf.

The boys caught on to what Koji was doing and immediately searched through their own baskets. As unfortunately expected, their D-Tectors were gone as well. The bird boys tricked them! They nicked the D-Tectors when they went swimming. That's why they didn't want the gang to leave!

"This is awful!" Takuya voiced what they all were thinking.

"This goes well beyond awful, young man." Bokomon scolded him, as well as the others while he was at it. "How could you let those Toucanmon trick you like that?"

"Stop it! They fooled all of us." Koji retorted.

Koichi lay a hand on his brother's shoulder, trying to calm him down. "We need to go after them. They couldn't have gotten far."

Koji nodded. "If we hurry we might catch up to them."

"Right!" Without thinking, Takuya and JP took their swimsuits off, only remembering the girls when they heard two squeaks. "Get out! Get out! Get out!"

The girls quickly fled and checked their own stuff. Who knows, maybe the Toucanmon came back while they were searching the beach house to steal the other D-Tectors.

"Mine is still here." Zoe announced. "How about yours?"

Sophia waved her D-Tector. "Took it with me when we heard you screaming."

"Good, then you'd better get changed. I'll wait outside."

A little under 10 minutes later, the gang was all dressed and ready to go after the thieves. Koichi luckily still had his D-Tector, since he grabbed it on his way to the dressing rooms as well. Now they just needed to find the Toucanmon, which admittedly wasn't hard. They left clear footprints in the sand. Sucks to be them.

" _-Ranamon the ravishing~~!"_

It was them! They were just up this dune. And…and tey were singing about Ranamon? This was it, soon they would have their D-Tectors back. Takuya could already see their head-crests.

"Alright! Hold it right there you thieves!" he called out. "Just what do you mean 'Ranamon the ravishing'?! Huh?!"

"Give our D-Tectors back to us right now!" Koji demanded. There was no way those ugly birds were taking Lobomon and KendoGarurumon from him!

"No way, no how!" Toucanmon tauntingly showed off the white and blue D-Tector he held, much to Koji's frustration. "These little babies are our ticket to a date with Ranamon."

So… They were fanboys, huh? Must be with all the merch they're wearing.

"Please! A drunk Gekomon has a bigger chance getting a side-glance from Ranamon than you guys have of getting heard! And that is with your chances combined!" Sophia mockingly taunted them.

"Take it from me, you guys are delusional! Now give them back!" JP growled. And…did he just take himself as an example of being delusional? Ouch?

The Toucanmon refused to believe any of them though, too caught up in their fantasies of Ranamon going on a date with them. "You can't make us! Now scram!"

"Maybe we should scram…" One of them said, which reminded the others that, not only are they outnumbered, but they didn't take all the D-Tectors. Three of them could still kick their ass and ruin their date chances.

But they also had D-Tectors now… Oh yes. They knew exactly what to do… "Scramming!"

So the chase continued. And man! Those stupid birds were fast! Sooner or later they were gonna get the slip. The gang was soon interrupted when they noticed several spurts of water bursting from the ocean.

Takuya stopped, first to notice it. "That doesn't look good." he said, seconds before Ranamon rose from the water on a pillar of water, six more surrounding her.

"Oh dear, it's Ranamon!" Bokomon exclaimed in worry. He quickly pulled out his book, ignoring Ranamon greeting them. "She's the warrior of water and very evil!"

Takuya resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Well, of course she is!"

Sophia, however, did not resist that urge. "Did you forget we already met?" she asked the gnome-digimon. "Pretty hard to forget with how we got our butts handed to us…" she muttered lowly.

"She sure has lousy timing." Koji scoffed, his hand felt around his pocket on instinct and he growled when he remembered who had his D-Tector.

"What a pleasant surprise~ I have so looked forward to seeing y'all again." Ranamon said in the most fake sincerity ever. "I'd hoped to have my beast spirit to show you first, but everything happens for a reason. We can't have everything. Just be good little children and hand over your spirits." Ha! Joke's on her! Even if they wanted to hand them over, they couldn't. "I'd love to stay and chat, but frankly you'd bore me to tears." …Rude… "Now, how's that sound?"

Zoe stepped up to her, unafraid. "Sounds stupid to me."

Normally, everyone would have agreed with that answer, but not right now. Not without their D-Tectors. They couldn't even attempt to fight Ranamon right now!

Zoe kept standing confident, not looking away from the water warrior. "I'll handle her." This, of course, caused some protest on JP's part. "Don't worry, JP. I'll take care of her in no time."

"Goody, goody~ This is gonna be a treat!" Ranamon grinned.

The two pillars of water quickly turned into cyclones, turning and twisting around Ranamon like a protective tornado. It caused a strong wind that the warriors had a hard time standing upright in.

"This is very very bad." Bokomon fretted as he read from his book. "As long as she's near water her offensive powers exponentially enhance."

"I'm guessing that's a bad thing?" Neemon asked, not really understanding what his friend just said.

Sophia rolled her eyes. "He means: Near water she gets stronger."

Neemon shuddered, finally understanding. "Ooh! That is bad!"

"I just said that! Didn't I just say that?!" "I dunno." Those two…

Zoe still glared at the evil warrior. "Water woman sure has a nasty temper." Attacking her and her friends when more than half was defenseless? Coward's move! She ignored JP's calls of concern again. 'You can't. You can't.' Of course she can! "Look, I haven't been able to Spirit evolve. I need to make up for lost time!" She would prove it with the help of Kazemon.

"I've never felt this helpless before."

A pang of sadness went through her. She knew exactly how JP was feeling… Which is exactly why she was going to do this! No one should feel helpless like that again. It was a nightmare when she lost her Spirits, she wasn't about to let her friends feel the same for as long as she had. Not if she could help it!

"Just leave it to me!" She grabbed her D-Tector, smiling at the familiar weight in her hand. It has been too long since she spoke these words. **"EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION! …KAZEMON!"**

As soon as Kazemon arrived on the battlefield, the cyclones stopped. Ranamon wasn't about to give a power boost to her enemy.

"Sugah, do you think you can take me on alone?" the water witch taunted with a smug grin on her face. She was in her element after all. There's no way this little fairy can beat her.

Kazemon thought differently. "That's a silly question. Of course I can, _sugah_."

"So now you're gonna mock me?" Ranamon snapped.

Kazemon gave a sly smirk. "I wouldn't dream of it. I'd rather fight!" she yelled, throwing a punch.

Unfortunately it was quickly put on halt by a fast rising water pillar. Kazemon flew back to try and avoid it, but Ranamon send it to follow the fairy-digimon. While fleeing from the funnels, they split in two and dove for Kazemon. She managed to dodge them, but the funnels still followed her from under the water. They emerged again, but this time Kazemon was close to a cliff. This time she had a plan and when she came close to the cliff, she flew up which caused the cyclones to crash into the cliff-side, turning it back to regular non-controlled water.

Down on the beach, the boys (and girl) were too caught up in Kazemon's fight to realize the Toucanmon had gotten away. Koji hated this feeling of uselessness and kept instinctively reaching for the D-Tector he no longer had. After a while of doing so, Koichi caught on to what he was doing and immediately remembered the feathered thieves.

He looked around in an instant, frowning when he realized they weren't there. "The Toucanmon got away!" he informed the others, who immediately snapped out of whatever trance the fight put them under and looked around.

"Oh man! Those feathered fanboys got the slip on us!" Takuya groaned.

"But it looks like they left us a nice trail to follow." Sophia smirked, pointing at the footprints in the sand.

Takuya nodded. "Then let's follow them!"

"Hold on! We can't just leave Zoe behind like that." JP argued.

"But we can't let the Toucanmon get away with our D-Tectors either!" Takuya tried to reason. "I don't wanna leave Zoe behind either, but she's got her Spirit. We don't."

While this exchange went on, Koichi was already following the footprints. It wasn't something he'd normally do without at least informing the others, but this time it was different. Something… Something felt different. Good different, but still. He needed to go there.

"Koichi?" Sophia called his name, snapping him out of his trance. Looking back, he saw that he'd already walked quite a distance. "Finally with us again? I called you 3 times already."

"Really? I'm sorry, it's just…" He looked ahead towards where the footprints were headed. "I felt something. It's just…pulling me there. I can't explain it."

Sophia seemed to take what he said into consideration. "Good something or bad something?"

"Good."

"Then let's go!" Sophia took his arm and sprinted ahead of him.

She waited until Koichi felt the 'something' again and let him guide her there once he did. They ended up on the borderline between the beach and the woods. Toucanmon's footprints had disappeared by now, they already had back where they'd dropped their Ranamon merch. They probably flew off not long after dropping everything, but Koichi kept leading Sophia towards the 'something'.

"Are you sure it's here?" Sophia asked, anxious since she was not familiar with the woods here at all. Then again, neither was Koichi….

The navy-haired boy nodded, grabbing her hand and leading her into the woods. It wasn't long until they heard sounds coming from around them. It slightly unnerved them, especially when they couldn't find the source. They kept walking, stepping over high protruding roots and ducking under low hanging branches, until they saw what looked to be a clearing.

The duo took a few steps towards it, but were quickly blocked by a horde of green, monkey-like digimon. They all aimed a slingshot with some sort of projectile at the humans.

"Trespassers!" They called out.

Koichi and Sophia slowly back down, but the digimon refused to let them move. One of the digimon without a weapon aimed at them stepped closer. "You trespassers! What you doing here?" it asked in a childlike voice.

"We didn't realize we were trespassing." Koichi tried to reason with them. "We don't mean any harm."

"That no answer." the monkey said as the armed ones pulled their slingshots tighter. "Now answer! **Why** you here?"

They were about to answer, when another, somehow younger looking digimon stepped closer. The little monkey, much to the confusion of its pack, sniffed the warriors up and down, even going so far as to climb them like some sort of toy.

"Monmon warriors, stop!" it called out to its pack once it was done sniffing. "These warriors of sound and dark."

Murmurs came from the group upon hearing that information. The leader stepped closer and sniffed as well. Eyes widened when he realized the other Monmon was right. He grabbed Koichi by his pants and began pulling him towards the clearing. Other Monmon followed his example and soon the human duo found themselves in the clearing.

It held a bunch of Monmon statues, each showing a different emotion. It kind of reminded them of Easter Island back in the human world.

"We tasked to protect dark Spirit." the leader Monmon said. "Many digimon want to steal. We not let them." That was…dark. Especially considering how much they look and sound like children. "You take. It yours." He looked at Koichi.

"Dark spirit? You mean my Beast Spirit?" he asked, gaining a nod from the Monmon.

Koichi smiled as he looked around. He glanced over the statues, wondering if his Beast Spirit may be around one of them. When he caught sight of the neutral, almost emotionless statue right in the middle, he froze. His eyes glazed over with a dark fog as he walked over to it. He reached forward, placing his hand on the belly of the statue. Immediately it burst open like it was made of paper, startling the Monmon to the point of fleeing.

The Beast Spirit floated in front of Koichi. Snatching the D-tector from his pocket, he pointed it to the Spirit and it, as usual, got absorbed into the device.

" **EXECUTE! BEAST SPIRIT EVOLUTION! …JAGERLOWEMON!"**

Sophia quickly hid behind a tree, not expecting the sudden evolution. She hoped he'd have control over his Spirit and that the hiding was unnecessary, but that hope was quickly dashed when she heard a growl. Her heart sank when she heard the beastly growl. He had no control. Sure enough, when she peeked around the tree, his eyes were fogged over, which could only mean the Spirit was the one in control.

She knew she couldn't fight him. When the beast was in control, they seemed much stronger than the tamed Beast Spirits the children held. 'But… I…I gotta do something!' She swallowed her anxiety and stepped out of her hiding place, D-Tector in hand. 'This has got to be the stupidest thing I've ever done…'

Jagerlowemon immediately spotted her. Growling, he charged at her as soon as he saw the device. Sophia, never taking her eyes of the creature and with shuddering breath, dropped her D-Tector in the sand and kicked it to the side. Jagerlowemon stopped mid-charge, looking at her in confusion.

"Koichi… I'm your friend, remember?" she said softly, slowly walking closer to him. He tensed up, but didn't attack, waiting for the inevitable attack the human would throw. "I'm not trying to hurt you, Koichi." When she reached the warrior, she crouched down and slowly reached for his nose. He again, tensed up, waiting for the strike so he could strike back twice as hard. When she instead softly started petting his nose, he was left confused. "I'm trying to help you… Come back…?"

The Beast Spirit, sensing no more danger, let up. The fog disappeared from Jagerlowemon's eyes as the control went back to Koichi. Sophia hadn't noticed yet and, much to Koichi's embarrassment, was still petting his nose.

"S-Sophia?" he stuttered.

In a flash, Sophia stopped what she was doing and stood up. "Y-you're back! Great!" she stuttered out rushed and blushing as red as Agunimon's armor. "U-uh… L-Let's go get the Toucanmon now!"

She rushed to get her D-Tector, just to get away from that situation. How embarrassing! He caught her petting him! If anyone else had seen that, she'd never live it down! Heck, she was never gonna let herself live this down!

" **EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION! …SONAMON!"**

While Jagerlowmon had armor to cover up his blush, Sonamon didn't have that luxury, so she flew high up to make up for it. In a way it did help their situation, as now she could easily spot the Toucanmon sitting by the sea-cliff. She gestured for Jagerlowemon to follow her and flew over to where she saw them. It was quite a distance flying and running, in fact it seemed to be on the other side of the island to where the Toucan paradise was, but eventually they reached it.

"So, what should we do with these?" One of the Toucanmon asked, looking at the D-Tectors.

"I have an idea." Sonamon said, jumping out from the trees. "How about you give them back to us?" As on cue, Jagerlowemon jumped out from the woods as well.

The Toucanmon quickly jumped up in fright. "How did you find us?!"

Sonamon just gave them a deadpanned stare while pointing at her wings. Still the Toucanmon weren't that easily swayed. They scrambled to get the D-Tectors along with… Is that… Is that a photo of Zoe in the changing rooms?!*

"What is that picture…?" Sonamon asked lowly, suddenly feeling very protective over the girl she calls her friend. "Why. The hell. Do you have. A picture. Of Zoe. In your feathered paws?!"

Jagerlowemon growled as well the moment he noticed it. The Toucanmon seemed to realize their mistake immediately as the one holding the photo scrambled around with it, eventually settling on throwing it away.

But mistakes were already made. Sonamon had already gathered the biggest ball of soundwaves in her hands as she glared daggers at the four.

" **SONAR BOOM!"** She threw it with all her might at the digimon, sending them flying over the cliff's edge. Luckily for them, they could fly, unfortunately for them, so could Sonamon.

"I dare you to take photos of underage girls like that again! You peeping toms! You scumbags! Get back and fight!" She launched another **sonar boom** with every sentence she said.

Fortunately for the Toucanmon, they were saved the rampage when a still spinning Calmaramon crashed into Sonamon and send her falling back onto the seaside cliff, de-Spirit evolving upon impact.

Though the crash and the sudden stab on pain in her shoulder didn't stop her from glaring daggers at the retreating backs of the Toucanmon.

"Sophia, are you okay?" Jagerlowemon asked, crouching down next to her.

With a growl she stood up and snatched up the photo. "I'm fine, but let's be glad I'm not the one getting my Beast Spirit today. Because I can assure you I'd be throwing a rampage like Takuya did." She took a deep breath trying to calm her anger. "Let's just get back to the others and tell them the bad news…"

* * *

Fun fact: When I first heard Jagerlowemon's name, I thought it was some weird mispronunciation of MegaLowemon.

*In case you didn't notice. In episode 16 there is actually a photo of Zoe in her 'Racecar' swimsuit right under JP and Takuya's D-Tectors... Yeah... I don't like it.

Errors:

"You can't blame a girl for feeling great on such a wonderful day." (You can't blame a girl for feeling _good_ on such a _beautiful_ day)

Southern bell (Wind chime) Where did I get southern bell from?

My entire storyline of how Koichi found his Beast Spirit! I couldn't have thought of something more creative?! Nope I had to make it 'A giant symbol of Darkness spread onto the sand' *facepalms*

I honestly didn't look for any more errors… That was my last error ^^"


End file.
